Vol. 17 No. 1
Evaluation of bed planted wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in relation to row orientation and intercropping systems
Author(s): M. PANDEY AND T. SINGH
Abstract: Manipulation of radiant energy within a crop field by an appropriate adoption of crop geometry like intercropping and row orientation can provide a means to create light saturated condition for crop canopy for the purpose of efficient harvest of solar energy for agricultural production. So, a field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of row orientation on the growth and yield of wheat and intercrops and to obtain information regarding highly productive and economically viable bed planted wheat based intercropping system. The experiment was carried out during rabi seasons of 2013-14 and 2014-15 at the research farm of the Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with two directions of sowing (i.e. north-south and east- west) in the main plot, and eleven different spatial crop arrangements (i.e. intercropping of wheat + spinach, wheat + fenugreek, wheat + fodder oat, wheat + canola and wheat + linseed along with sole planting of wheat in bed system and five different component crops in flat system) in the subplot, replicated four times. Raising the wheat in east-west row orientation resulted in higher grain yield (55.1 q ha-1), wheat equivalent yield (55.7 q ha-1), system productivity (35.0 kg ha-1day-1) and net return (₹ 58,000 ha-1) as compared to north-south row orientation. Wheat + fodder oat system produced significantly higher wheat equivalent yield (70.3 q ha-1), system productivity (44.2 kg ha-1day-1) and the economic returns (₹ 110,680 gross and ₹ 76,340 net returns ha-1) than the other wheat based intercropping systems.
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