International Journal of Agricultural Sciences

International Journal of Agricultural Sciences ISSN 2167-0447 Vol. 7 (7), pp. 1332-1337, July, 2017. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Economic assessment and biological feasibility of summer sesamum based intercropping systems

¹Dinesh Kumar*, ¹RB Ardeshna, ¹AK Patel and ²Narendra Singh

¹Dept. of Agronomy, N. M. College of Agriculture, NAU, Navsari – 396 450, ²Assistant Professor, Dept. of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, NAU, Bharuch, Navsari – 392012.

*Corresponding author E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 08 June, 2017

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at College Farm, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari (Gujarat) to study the production potential and economic assessment of various sesamum based intercropping systems during summer season of 2016. The total nine treatments were tested in randomized block design with four replications. Green gram and cowpea were intercropped in sesamum with 2:1 and 3:2 row ratios. Sole green gram gave highest net return (Rs. 56441/ha) and found to be most beneficial treatment among all of the nine treatments. Intercropping of green gram with sesamum was found more beneficial over sole sesamum. Among the intercropping treatments, sesamum + green gram (3:2) gave maximum sesamum equivalent yield (944 kg/ha), land equivalent ratio (1.18), area time equivalent ratio (1.13), income equivalent ratio (1.18), monetary advantages (Rs. 10515/ha), net return (Rs. 48118/ha) and benefit cost ratio (3.01).

Keywords: Intercropping, sesamum, green gram, cowpea, productivity, economics.