Evaluation of yield and its components on onion and fenugreek intercropping ratios in different planting densities

摘要

A field study was conducted to evaluate the productivity of onion (Minim cepa L) and fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) within intercropping system during two consecutive growing seasons (2015 -2016 and 2016-2017). Cultural pattern of intercropping was implemented using additive series. The experiment was arranged as a factorial on a randomized complete block design with three replications. The first factor was onion densities (300,000, 250,000 and 200,000 plant ha(-1)) and the second one was fenugreek densities at three levels (250,000,150,000 and 120,000 plant ha(-1)) along with sole each mono crop of the mixture. The results showed that the highest total bulb yield of onion (46.6 th(-1)) was obtained with 30 plant m(-2 )density. Maximum biological yield (5.43 th(-1)) of fenugreek was observed in 25 plant m(-2). Regarding two years mean, the highest land equivalent ratio (LER) (2.96) and relative value total (RVT) (1.58) related to the treatment combination of onion and fenugreek with 25:25 and 30:15 plant m(-2) respectively. These suggest that onion and fenugreek intercropping had more productivity than monocropping of them. Maximum LER and RVT were achieved at the higher densities of onion (30 plant m(-2)) and fenugreek (15 plant m(-2)). Onion and fenugreek are favorable for intercropping because they are complementary, and interactively contribute to increasing the yield per unit area and improving the nutritional properties. Also, it was confirmed that farmers can attain more revenue with inter-cropping onion and fenugreek. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.