Effect of different intercrops on yield parameters, yield and quality parameter of sole and intercropped transplanted pigeonpea

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different intercrops on yield parameters, yield, and quality traits of sole and intercropped transplanted pigeonpea at the ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Farm, Kalaburagi, Karnataka, during the kharif seasons of 2016-17 and 2017-18. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications and eleven treatments. The treatments included transplanted pigeonpea intercropped with greengram (1:4), blackgram (1:4), soybean (1:4), sesamum (1:4), sunflower (1:1), along with their respective sole crops. The pooled results over two years revealed that the sole transplanted pigeonpea recorded significantly higher yield-attributing characters, including seed yield per plant (266.97 g plant⁻¹), number of pods per plant (747.27), number of seeds per pod (4.16), and 100-seed weight (11.43 g), compared to intercropped treatments. A similar trend was observed for seed yield and quality parameters, indicating that sole transplanted pigeonpea outperformed intercropping systems under the study conditions.