Abstract
A field experiment was conducted at the Regional
Agricultural Research Station, BARI, Jessore (230 11'7"N,
890 11'25"E), during three consecutive rabi seasons
(November-March) to evaluate productivity of chickpea +
rapeseed and lentil + rapeseed intercropping systems in
relation to soil water expense and solar radiation
interception under rainfed situations, Four planting
systems viz,, sole cropping, 2-row chickpea or lentil
alternate with 2-row rapeseed, 4-row chickpea or lentil
alternate with 2-row rapeseed and chickpea or lentil mixed
with rapeseed were tested.
Dry matter accumulation and grain yield plant-1 of
rapeseed and chickpea were maximum in 4-row chickpea system.
Lentil proved to be inefficient in intercropping with
rapeseed. Mixed cropping of chickpea or lentil with rapeseed
performed minimally,
A method to partition combined resource expense and/or
interception between the component crops was proposed by
formulating resource equivalent ratios viz.; water
equivalent ratio (WER) and radiation interception equivalent
ratio (RIER).
On the basis of grain yield indices like grain
equivalent, land equivalent ratio (LER), area x time
equivalent ratio (ATER), crop performance ratio (CPR), total
crop performance ratio (TCPR) were used to evaluate performance of the crops in different planting systems.
Water equivalent ratio (WER), radiation interception
equivalent ratio (RIER), water expense efficiency (WEE);
radiation expense efficiency (REE), water x radiation
expense effiency (WREE) and land equivalent ratio (LER) in
terms of resources (water and radiation) absorption and
conversion were, on the other hand, employed to evaluate
performance of the crops in their planting systems, Other
factors like risk adjustment, gross return and gross margin
were also used to evaluate the performance of the crops in
the planting systems.
CPR and TCPR on the basis of grain yield as well as
WER and RIER on the hasis of resource expense was found to
be more efficient than the indices already in use in
assessing productivity of the planting systems of the
intercrop combinations.
Among the planting systems, the 4-row chickpea system
proved to be the best one based on the indices used. The
same planting system also recorded the highest conversion of
the resources.