Study on black gram (vignamungo)/ vegetable amaranthus (amaranthustricolor l.) intercropping in sandy regosol

Abstract

Intercropping is the practice of growing more than one crop in the same field simultaneously and considered for increasing and stability of yield per unit. In this regard, a field experiment was conducted at Crop farm, Eastern University, Sri Lanka during yala 2014 to study the effect of black gram/vegetable amaranthus intercropping system in sandy regosol. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with four replicates and five treatments; monocropping black gram (T1), monocropping vegetable amaranthus (T2), black gram intercropped with one row of vegetable amaranthus (T3), black gram intercropped with two rows of vegetable amaranthus (T4) and black gram intercropped with three rows of vegetable amaranthus (T5). All the agronomic practices for cultivation were done according to the department of agriculture, Sri Lanka recommendation. The measurements were recorded at the harvesting stage of vegetable amaranthus and harvesting stage of black gram at thirty and sixty days after sowing of crops, respectively. The results showed that black gram/vegetable amaranthus intercropping system had significant (p<0.05) influenced on tested parametersof vegetable amaranthus such as fresh leaf weight, fresh stem weight along with marketable yield.In which highest marketable yield was recorded in monocroppingamaranthus followed by T3 and T4 and lowest in T5. In the meantime there were significant differences on tested parameters including plant height and total plant fresh weight of black gram compare to monocropping while yield per hectare of black gram did not change significantly by intercropped vegetable amaranthus (p<0.05). Therefore it can be concluded that vegetable amaranthus and black gram are compatible crops and can be recommended for intercropping in sandy regosol.