Ann. Agric. Res. New Series Vol.

35 (2)Intercropping
: 205-208 (2014)studies in Indian mustard 205

Intercropping studies in Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) in the

western parts of Uttar Pradesh

Adityandra Kumar1, S.K. Chauhan1, S.K. Singh2 and Nitu Kumari3

1
R.B.S.College, Bichpuri, Agra-283 105 (UP); 2Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Parwaha, Auraiya-206 244;
3
V.K.S. Agriculture College, Dumraon (Bihar)
e-mail: sandipsingh11@rediffmail.com

Received : July 2013 ; Revised accepted : April 2013

ABSTRACT

A field experiment was conducted during rabi seasons of 2006-07 and 2007-08 at Research Farm of
R.B.S. College of Agriculture, Bichpuri, (U.P.) to work out productivity and economics of
intercropping of different pulses, linseed and potato with mustard (Brassica juncea) on sandy loam
soils of Agra region. Soil of the experimental plots was sandy loam in texture, with pH 7.9, poor
in organic carbon (0.30%) and medium in P and K status (15.6 kg P2O5 and 214.2 kg K2O/ha). The
treatments were replicated four times in randomized block design with plot size of 5.0m × 3.6 m.
The results showed that mustard yield was significantly higher when grown as a sole crop than
that grown as intercrop with other crops. Among the intercropping treatments, intercropping of
pulses and linseed with mustard produced significantly higher yield of mustard than that of
intercropping with potato. Also, in terms of net return it was found that intercropping of potato
with mustard in 1:3 row proportion was found better than sole crop of mustard thus showing the
higher degree of efficiency and compatibility of the said intercropping treatment.

Key words: Intercropping, mustard, pulses, potato, linseed, land equivalent ratio.

On the food front, India has achieved self
sufficiency. Since mid 60's the situation on cereal
production, especially that of wheat and rice,
has changed the scenario of the agricultural
production in the country with the development
of high yielding, input-responsive varieties of
these crops. However, on the nutritional aspect,
not much progress has been made. Pulses, as a
whole have pivotal position for a country like
India where the major population is vegetarian
and derives its significant portion of protein
needs from these crops. Not only this, pulses
are indispensable in the overall economy of
country. Every plant of pulses of country is itself
a mini fertilizer factory and has maintained
Indian soils in good health. According to the
consecutive estimates, pulses add even much
more nitrogen than what is being added in the
soil through chemical fertilizers.
Mustard is an important rabi oilseed crop
grown on an average of 25 thousand hectare in
mid -western plains of U.P. It is often grown as
an intercrop or mixed crop either with pulses or
cereals crops, but its productivity is very low
due to improper combination. Thus, the present
investigation was carried out to find out the best
intercrop combination with mustard and also to
find out the extent of reduction in yield of
mustard and inter crop in the system.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
An experiment was conducted during rabi
season of 2006-07 and 2007-08 in sandy loam soils
which are highly permeable, with pH of 7.9,
poor in organic carbon (0.30%) and medium in
P and K status (15.6 kg P2O5 and 214.2 kg K2O/
ha) of R.B.S. College, Research Farm, Bichpuri,
Agra. Treatments details showing plan and
harvesting schedule are given in Tables 1 and 2
206 Kumar et al.

respectively. The treatment were replicated four
times in randomized block design with plot size
of 5.0 m × 3.6 m. Sowing was done on November
'09 in 2006-07 and on November '11 in 2007-08.
All crops were raised with recommended
package of practices. The quantity of seed and
fertilizer in intercropping system was adjusted
in proportionality to area of the respective crop.
Mustard seed equivalent was worked out on the
basis of existing market price of each crop. Land
Equivalent Ratio (LER), Income Equivalent Ratio
(IER) and net return were computed on the basis
of pooled yield data over the two years. The
variety of mustard was "Vardan", chickpea -
Avrodhi, pea - Arpana, lentil - K-75, Linseed Neelam
and potato - Kufari Bahar. No rain fall was
Table 1. Details of different treatments of mustard as a sole, intercropping with pulses, linseed and potato and as a
sole treatment of inter cropped crops
received during crop season in 2006-07 and 6.3
mm rainfall was received in 2007-08 during the
crop season.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data in Table 3 clearly indicates that the
seed yield of mustard was significantly higher
in sole crop treatment than in the intercropping
treatments. The seed yields were nearly
proportional to population and some deviation
from it might be due to the competition offered
by an intercrop for nutrients, moisture and solar
radiation in the vegetative phase of mustard.
Similar results were also reported by Rathi et al.
(1979).

Treatments Row proportions

T1 - Pure mustard at 30 cm apart -

T2 - Mustard + Chickpea 1:5
T3 - Mustard + Lentil 1:5
T4 - Mustard + Linseed 1:5
T5 - Mustard + Pea 1:5
T6 - Mustard + Potato 1:3
T7- Pure chick pea at the same place without mustard 0:5
T8- Pure lentil at the same place without mustard 0:5
T9- Pure linseed at the same place without mustard 0:5
T10 - Pure Pea at the same place without mustard 0:5
T11 -Pure potato at the same place without mustard 0:3

Table 2. Harvesting schedule of crops in different treatments

Treatments Harvesting schedule

T1 Twelve rows of mustard harvested (30 cm × 12 row = 3.6m width.

T1 to T5 1. Ten inter crop rows harvested (all five from each set.) 2. Central row of mustard
harvested and then double the yield to make two rows yield to get 3.6m width as in case of
treatment No-1, for compensation of 12 rows yield.
T6 1. Six rows of potato harvested (all three rows in each sett) 2. Central rows of mustard
harvedted and than the double the yield to get total 3.6m width as in case of pure
mustard.
T7 to T10 1. Harvested total six rows (three rows in each sett) and than the double the yield by
multiplying 2 to equate 12 rows yield as in case of mustard to get 3.6m width. 2. Remaining
four rows (two rows in each sett) harvested and than add with six rows yield. Thus, it
should be the yield of 10 rows without intercrops as in treatments 2 to5 to know the effect
of mustard on intercrop.
T11 1. Harvested total two rows (One central row from each set) leaving two border rows
ineach sett. Then it was multiplied by 4 to equate the yield of 3.6m width. 2. Remaining
four rows ( two border rows in each sett) were harvested and than add two rows yield to
make six rows yield as in case of No.6 to know the effect of mustard on potato intercrop.
 Intercropping studies in Indian mustard 207

Table 3. Mustard and intercrop seed/tuber yield and mustard seed equivalent yield under different treatments
Treatments Seed yield of mustard Seed yield of intercrop Mustard seed equivalent yield
(q/ha) (q/ha) (q/ha) (Avg. of 2 years)
2006-07 2007-08 Mean 2006-07 2007-08 Mean

Mustard sole 21.8 17.3 19.5 - - - 19.5

Mustard + chick pea 10.4 9.2 9.8 6.4 5.2 5.8 18.8
Mustard + lentil 11.4 9.5 10.5 7.4 6.8 7.1 13.3
Mustard + linseed 10.6 9.7 10.2 8.5 7.3 7.9 17.2
Mustard + pea 11.6 9.6 10.6 7.2 6.1 6.7 17.3
Mustard + potato 10.6 9.2 9.9 164.4 148.8 156.6 21.4
Chick pea sole - - - 14.1 12.8 13.5 13.3
Lentil sole - - - 14.5 13.1 13.8 8.3
Linseed sole - - - 15.8 13.7 14.8 10.0
Pea sole - - - 15.8 13.9 14.9 8.1
Potato sole - - - 315.1 298.8 307.0 18.5

Table 4. Effect of different intercrops on the yield (q/ha) of mustard and vice-versa (Average of two years)

Treatments Mustard yield % reduction Seed yield inter % reduction

(q/ha) yield crops(q/ha) yield
Mustard sole 19.5 - - -
Mustard + Chick pea 9.8 49.7 5.8 57.1
Mustard + lentil 10.5 46.2 7.1 48.6
Mustard + linseed 10.2 47.7 7.9 46.6
Mustard + pea 10.6 45.6 6.6 55.7
Mustard + potato 9.9 49.2 156.6 49.1
Chick pea sole - - 13.5 -
Lentil sole 13.8 -
Linseed sole - - 14.8 -
Pea sole - - 14.9 -
Potato sole - - 306.9 -

It was further noted that among
intercropping treatments, intercropping of
pulses and oil seed (linseed) with mustard
produced significantly higher mustard seed
yield in comparison to mustard+potato
intercropping system (Table 3). It might be due
to more competition for moisture, nutrient and
solar radiation of mustard intercropped with
potato in comparison to intercrops with chickpea,
pea, lentil and linseed.
Seed/tuber yield of intercrop
Significant reduction in seed yield /tuber
yield of different crops occured when they were
grown as an intercrop with mustard except in
case of linseed where differences in sole yield
as well as intercrop were found to be non
significant (Table 3). The reduction of yield of
intercrop might be due to the shading effects of
mustard on these crops besides the competition
for nutrients, moisture and radiation.
Total productivity (mustard seed equivalent)
Total productivity measured in terms of
mustard seed equivalent indicated that the
mustard + potato combination with 1:3 row
proportion produced significantly higher
mustard seed equivalent than sole stand of these
crops and in their intercropping systems (Table 3).
It might be due to the higher tuber yield of
potato (307 q/ha) which compensated higher
price ratio with pulses and oil seeds grown as
an intercrop. Similar results were also reported
by Kaushik and Chaubey (2001).
Effect of mustard on intercrop yield and
vice-versa
As mentioned in harvesting schedules, for
recording adverse effect of intercrop on the seed
yield of mustard was compared with seed yield
of mustard obtained in treatment No. 1. The %
reduction in seed yield of mustard was highest
with chickpea (49.7) as an intercrop followed by
208 Kumar et al.

Table 5. Land equivalent ratio(LER), income equivalent ratio (IER) and net return as affected by different treatments

Treatments Land equivalent Income equivalent Net return

ratio (LER) ratio (IER) (Rs/ha)
Mustard sole 1.00 1.00 24, 012
Mustard + chick pea 1.11 1.05 18, 473
Mustard + lentil 1.09 0.90 20, 258
Mustard + liseed 1.25 0.94 16, 756
Mustard + pea 1.28 0.98 19, 337
Mustard + potato 1.45 1.25 36, 517
Chick pea sole 1.00 0.88 19, 257
Lentil sole 1.00 1.04 22, 149
Linseed sole 1.00 0.75 9, 566
Pea sole 1.00 0.87 18, 364
Potato sole 1.00 1.13 47, 432
CD at 5% 0.07 0.06 -

potato (49.2%) and minimum was with pea
(45.6%) (Table 4).
In intercrops, the maximum reduction in seed
yield was recorded with chick pea (57.0%)
followed by pea (55.7) and minimum was with
linseed (46.6%) (Table 4).
Biological and economic studies
Average data of two years (pooled) on
biological advantage measured in terms of land
equivalent ratio (LER) and income equivalent
ratio (IER) were significantly higher in mustard
+ potato with 1:3 row proportion compared with
sole crop and other intercropping systems. The
value of LER emphasized that to produce the
combined crop yield by growing intercrop with
pure stand would require 16% more area or
otherwise the arrangement gave 16% increase
in yield compared to sole crop of mustard or
potato (Table 5). This revealed a greater degree
of efficiency and compatibility of potato
intercropping in mustard, particularly with the
system which provided maximum advantage.
Pooled economic evaluation in terms of net
returns showed that combination of mustard
and potato with 1:3 row proportion gave the
highest net returns of Rs 36,517/ha (Table 5)
than other intercrop treatments and sole crops
treatment except potato.
It was concluded that intercropping of potato
in 1:3 row proportion with mustard may be
adopted for higher returns and to boost up
edible oil production to satisfy the demand of
growing population.

REFERENCES
Kaushik, M.K. and Chaubey, A.K. 2001. Inter
cropping studies in Indian mustard (Brassica
juncea) under the agro-climate condition of
mid-western plains of Uttar Pradesh. Crop
Res. 22(1) : 4-9.
Rathi, K.S. Verma, V.S., Tripati, H.N. and Singh,
R.A. 1979. Recent agronomical advances in
mustard research strategy during 1979-80.
Paper presented at the Annual Co-
Coordinated oil seed improvement project
on Rapeseed and Mustard, held at 12-12
September 1979, CSA University of
Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, U.P.,
pp. 117-121.