Influence of row arrangement and fertilizer levels on quality parameters and land equivalent ratio of pearlmillet and cowpea intercropping

Abstract

A field experiment to assess the “Influence of row arrangement and fertilizer levels on quality parameters and land equivalent ratio of pearlmillet and cowpea intercropping” was undertaken during two consecutive summer seasons of 2023 and 2024 at College Farm, N. M. College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, Gujarat, India. The experiment was carried out in Randomized Block Design with Factorial concept (FRBD) with three replications. The experiment consisted of two factors, Factor A: Row arrangement and Factor B: Fertilizer levels. Ten treatment combinations comprising of five row arrangements R1: (Pearlmillet Sole), R2: (Cowpea Sole), R3: (Pearlmillet + Cowpea 1:1), R4: (Pearlmillet + Cowpea 1:2), R5: (Pearlmillet + Cowpea 2:1) and two fertilizer levels F1: (75% RDF) and F2: (100% RDF). The results found that significantly higher crude protein yield under sole pearlmillet and its at par with pearlmillet + cowpea (2:1), whereas higher land equivalent ratio was recorded with pearlmillet + cowpea (1:2) followed by pearlmillet + cowpea (1:1). In case of cowpea maximum crude protein content in seed and crude protein yield of cowpea recorded with cowpea sole followed by pearlmillet + cowpea (1:2) row arrangement. Thus, forgoing results of two years experiment, it can be concluded that pearlmillet crop should be intercropped with cowpea at 1:1 or 1:2 row arrangement and fertilized the crops with 100% RDF (120-60-00, N-P2O5-K2O kg/ha for pearlmillet and 20-40-00, N-P2O5-K2O kg/ha for cowpea on area basis) for getting higher protein yield, land equivalent ratio.