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.
