Abstract:
An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural
University, Dhaka, during November 2008 to March 2009 to evaluate the effect of
planting geometry of wheat grown as pure stand and intercropping with grasspea and
lentil on the productivity and economic performance of intercropping systems. The
experiment consisted of twelve treatments (Ti = Sole wheat, T
2
= Sole grasspea, T3 =
Sole lentil, T4
= Wheat Paired Row (WPR), T
5
= WPR + 1 Row grasspea, T
6
= WPR
+ 2 Rows grasspea, 1
7
= WPR + 1 Row lentil, T
8
= WPR + 2 Rows lentil, T
9
= 1:1
row ratio of wheat and grasspea, T
10
= 3:1 row ratio of wheat and grasspea, T
11
= 1:1
row ratio of wheat and lentil, T
12
= 3:1 row ratio of wheat and lentil), which were laid
out in a RCB design with three replications. Results revealed that, planting geometry
had significant effect on plant height, tillers planf', above ground dry matter planf',
length of spike, spikelet spike
1
, 1000 grain weight, grain yield and harvest index of
wheat. Planting geometry also significantly changed plant height, branches plant",
above ground dry matter plant
',
1000 seed weight, seed yield (t ha') and harvest
index
of grasspea and lentil. The results showed that, planting pattern of one row
grasspea fitted in between two paired rows of wheat (T
5
) gave the highest wheat
equivalent yield (4.31 t ha'), LER (1.38), monetary advantage (Tk. 13423.91 ha
d),
gross return (Tk.72369 hi' ),.net return (1k. 30126 ha
d
) and BCR (1.71). The second
highest BCR (1.70) and LER (1.19) were noted from To treatment (3:1 row ratio of
wheat & grasspea). In this intercropping system grasspea showed better compatibility
than lentil when intercropped with wheat.
