PERFORMANCE OF WHEAT-MUSTARD INTERCROPPING UNDER DIFFERENT ROW RATIOS

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy research field, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka from November, 2015 to March, 2016 to study the performance of wheat-mustard intercropping as influenced by different row arrangement. Ten treatments were included in this study as, T 1 (sole wheat), T 2

(sole mustard), T 3 (wheat-mustard in 2:1 rows), T 4 (wheat-mustard in 3:1 rows), T 5 (wheat-mustard in 4:1 rows), T 6 (wheat-mustard in 5:1 rows), T 7 (wheatmustard

in 2:2 rows), T 8 (wheat-mustard in 3:2 rows), T 9 (wheat-mustard in 4:2 rows) and T 10 (wheat-mustard in 5:2 rows). The experimental result indicate that seed yield of wheat was significantly affected by the wheat-mustard intercropping system. The highest seed yield (3.4 t ha -1 ) was obtained from T 1 (sole wheat) and T 4 (wheat-mustard in 3:1 rows). Wheat yield gradually decreased with increasing mustard rows except T 4 . The lowest seed yield (1.87 t ha -1 ) was obtained from T 7

(wheat-mustard in 2:2 rows) which was statistically similar to T 8 (wheat-mustard in 3:2 rows). The highest wheat equivalent yield (5.03 t ha -1 ) was obtained from T 4 (wheat-mustard in 3:1 rows). Treatment T 4 (wheat-mustard in 3:1 rows) produced the highest LER which was 1.45. Economic analysis of the different treatments showed that the highest gross return (120250 Tk. ha -1 ), the highest net return (61178 Tk. ha -1 ) and BCR (2.04) were found in T 4 (wheat-mustard in 3:1 rows). Therefore, present study suggest that wheat and mustard intercropped in 3:1 rows is the most compatible in respect of yield advantage and economic gain.