Abstract
A study was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, BAU, Mymensingh during two consecutive years, 2007-09 to observe the productivity and profitability of different mixed intercropping and row intercropping combinations of off-season jute seed crop with legumes and vegetables. The six crop combinations tested for assessing off-season jute seed production involved mixed intercropping and row intercropping of soybean, mungbean and sweet potato with Capsularis jute, and cabbage, mungbean and sweet potato with Olitorius jute. The results revealed that off-season jute seed cultivation alone (i.e. its sole cultivation) was not profitable, because of its lower yields. Again, plant population at harvest, plant height, branches plant', pods plant', seeds pod', 1000-seed weight and jute seed yield reduced in all the mixed intercropping and row intercropping arrangements as compared to sole cropping of jute but the total productivity and economic returns were higher in many of these combinations. On the basis of economic returns, sweet potato+Olitorius jute appeared to be the best row intercropping combination for off-season jute seed production followed by sweet potato+Capsularis jute and mungbean+Olitorius jute. In terms of economic benefit, mungbean+Capsularis jute and soybean+Capsularis jute were found less suitable and cabbage+Olitorius jute was not found as a fruitful crop combination. On the other hand, paired row intercropping (2 rows sweet potato:2 rows Olitorius jute) produced significantly the highest Jute Seed Equivalent Yield (JSEY) for Olitorius (1108.45 kg ha1 in 2007-08 and 1137.84 kg ha1 in 2008-09) compared to the corresponding figures of 518.46 kg and 833.33 kg ha', and 523.84 kg and 870.00 kg ha1 in sole Olitorius jute and sole sweet potato. The highest values of LER (1.60 in 2007-08 and 1.61 in 2008-09), gross return (Tk. 135,705.60 ha in 2007-08 and Tk. 139,544.44 ha1 in 2008-09), net return (Tk. 67,051.60 ha1 in 2007-08 and Tk. 70,221.44 ha1 in 2008-09) and BCR (1.98 in 2007-08 and 2.01 in 2008-09) were obtained from the paired row intercropping (2 rows sweet potato:2 rows Olitorius jute). The second highest JSEY, LER, gross return, net return and BCR for Olitorius were found in alternate row intercropping (1 row sweet potato: 1 row Olitorius jute). On the contrary, bed planting III (2 rows sweet potato:4 rows Olitorius jute) and two row intercropping (1 row sweet potato:2 rows Olitorius jute) yielded the lowest values each of JSEY, LER, gross return, net return and BCR for Olitorius, which were possibly attributable to higher level of plant population in the row intercropping. Bed planting II (2 rows sweet potato:2 rows Olitorius jute), paired row intercropping for two planting arrangements (2 rows sweet potato:2 rows Capsularis jute; 2 rows mungbean:2 rows Olitorius jute) and mixed intercropping of 75%mungbean+75%Olitorius jute were found moderately suitable techniques for jute seed production in terms of economic returns. On the basis of crop combination, sweet potato+Olitorius jute was found to be the best remunerative one for the purpose, generating the highest level of productivity and best economic returns among the crop combinations under study. The planting arrangement paired row intercropping (2 rows sweet potato:2 rows Olitorius jute) was considered the most profitable and viable system for off-season jute seed cultivation. Hence, this planting arrangement along with sweet potato+Olitorius jute crop combination can be the recommended to the farmers for off-season jute seed production in order to earn higher economic returns.