Assessment of elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius L.) – an efficient intercrop under guava (Psidium guajava L.) orchard for purvanchal district of Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Intercropping is the growing of two or more crops simultaneously in proximity. The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a given piece of land by making use of resources or ecological processes that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop. The growth characters of Elephant footyam (suran) as intercrop were not affected by shade effect of guava trees or various other tree species. The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Varanasi conducted Frontline demonstration on 08 farmers for each year since 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 in different locations of Varanasi district to evaluate the Elephant footyam as intercrop in guava orchard. The problem of poor orchard management and poor cultural practices in orchard management are solved when intercropping is done. The use of high yielding variety, balanced use of fertilizer on the basis soil testing report and integrated pest and disease management etc are the main technologies to be tested in this demonstration. The data of study revealed to the cost of cultivation, production, gross return and net return were collected as per schedule and analyzed. The result of present study revealed that average highest yield in demonstration was recorded 495.66 q/ha was obtained in demonstrated plot over control (370 q/ha) with an additional yield of 125.66 q/ha and the increasing the average tomato productivity by 34.0 per cent. The extension gap and technology gap ranged between 107 to 125 and 146 to 195 q/ha, respectively, with the technology index of 25.94 per cent during the demonstration years. Besides this, the demonstrated plots gave higher gross return, net return with higher benefit cost ratio when compared to farmer’s practice. In present study efforts were also made to study the impact of FLD on horizontal spread which was increased 641.17%, if appropriate package and practices are followed.