Enhancing foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) productivity with legume intercrops

Abstract

A field investigation entitled “Enhancing Foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) productivity with legumes intercrops” was conducted in kharif season of 2024- 2025 at the Instructional Farm, Post -Graduate Institute, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications and eleven treatments viz., T1: Foxtail millet + Green gram (2:2), T2: Foxtail millet + Black gram (2:2), T3: Foxtail millet + Horse gram (2:2), T4: Foxtail millet +Soybean (2:2), T5: Foxtail millet + Moth bean (2:2), T6: Sole Foxtail millet, T7: Sole Green gram, T8: Sole Black gram, T9: Sole Horse gram, T10: Sole Soybean, T11: Sole moth bean. All the growth contributing data viz., plant height (112.04 cm), total number of tillers plant-1 (5.00), number of leaves plant-1 (12.43), leaf area plant-1 (4.29 dm2), leaf area index (1.43) and dry matter plant-1 (18.27 g) accumulation at harvest were recorded highest in intercropping treatment T4 i.e., Foxtail millet + Soybean intercropped in 2:2 row proportion than the treatment T6 i.e., Sole Foxtail millet which recorded the lowest values of corresponding growth contributing characters. However, there were slight difference in the days to 50% flowering among the different intercropping treatments. Yield and yield-related traits of Foxtail millet were also numerically impacted by treatment T4 i.e., Foxtail millet + Soybean intercropped in 2:2 row proportion which produced the highest number of productive tillers plant-1 (5.00), number of panicles plant-1 (3.27), panicle length (18.12 cm), panicle weight (9.02 g), grain yield (1135 kg ha-1) and straw yield (1934 kg ha-1)) than the treatment T6 i.e., Sole Foxtail millet which recorded lowest respected values of 3.75, 2.26, 14.29 cm, 7.36 g, 1598 kg ha-1, 272 kg ha-1. The intercropping assessment indicated that treatment T4 i.e., Foxtail millet + Soybean intercropped in 2:2 row proportion recorded the highest values for Land Equivalent Ratio (1.43), Area Time Equivalent Ratio (1.43), Foxtail Millet Equivalent Yield (2158.18 kg ha⁻¹), system productivity (3293.04 kg ha⁻¹), and system profitability (₹964.23 ha⁻¹ day⁻¹). Interestingly, this treatment also exhibited the lowest aggressivity towards the main crop, with a value of -0.005.