Effect of intercropping aerobic rice with leafy vegetables on crop growth, yield and its economic efficiency

Abstract

Aerobic rice production system provides a sustainable alternative to the traditional rice cultivation. To evaluate the agronomic and economic effect of intercropping aerobic rice with four leafy vegetables, field experiments were conducted at University of Agriculture Science Bangalore research station, India during 2017 and 2018. The experiments consisted of 9 treatments with 4 replications and, a Randomized Completely Block Design was applied. The treatments were as follows: Intercropping (IC 1): rice+amaranth; IC 2 : rice + coriander; IC 3 : rice + spinach, and IC 4 : rice + fenugreek plus other 5 treatments of solecrops (SC), SC 5 : rice, SC 6 : amaranth, SC 7 : coriander, SC 8 : spinach, and SC 9 : fenugreek. Results showed that intercropping produced significantly better plant growth and higher yields than sole crops. The rice-spinach intercrop produced highest rice grain yield (7,651 kg ha-1), vegetable yield (25,508 kg ha-1), land equivalent ratio (2.13), rice equivalent yield (16,153 kg ha-1), production efficiency (107.69 kg day-1), area time equivalent ratio (1.23) and system harvest index (0.77). Net return and benefit cost ratio of rice-spinach intercropping were also higher than that of sole crops. This suggests that intercropping of aerobic rice with leafy vegetables can be productive and economically efficient.