Vol. 11, Issue 2 (2022)

The present investigation was carried out at during summer of 2019 and 2020 at College Farm, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari (Gujarat) find out the effect of row arrangements and nutrient levels on growth and yield of maize and cowpea intercropping system. The experiment was conducted with the objective to evaluate the appropriate row arrangement, nutrient levels and the best interaction of row arrangement and nutrient levels for maize-cowpea intercropping system. The experiment was laid-out in factorial randomized block design keeping five row arrangements and three nutrient levels with three replications. Treatments comprised of five row arrangements viz., sole maize (A₁), sole cowpea (A₂), maize-cowpea (1:1) (A₃), maize-cowpea (1:2) (A₄) and maize-cowpea (2:1) and three nutrient levels viz., 75% RDF (F₁), 100% RDF (F₂) and 125% RDF (F₃). Recommended dose of fertilizer used for maize and cowpea were 120:60:40 and 20:40:00 N:P2O5:K2O kg/ha respectively. Hybrid variety sugar 75 of maize of Syngenta company and GC-6 of cowpea cultivar released by SDAU, Dantiwada were taken as test crops during the investigation.

The results of the experiment showed that, growth parameters of maize viz., plant height of maize was significantly influenced by row arrangement and the highest values were recorded by sole maize. However, significantly the highest the number of functional leaves, leaf area index and dry matter accumulation per plant, cob length (cm), number of cobs per plant, cob diameter (cm) and maize equivalent yield (q/ha) recorded by 2:1 row arrangement over sole maize, sole cowpea, 1:1 and 1:2 row arrangements. The significantly higher green cob yield and straw yield of maize was found under sole cropping over the rest of row arrangements and which was found at par with 2:1 row arrangement. Among the nutrient levels, application of 125% RDF was recorded significantly the higher plant height, number of functional leaves, leaf area index and dry matter accumulation per plant, cob length (cm), number of cobs per plant, cob diameter (cm) and maize equivalent yield (q/ha) over 75% RDF.

In case of yield of maize, the higher values for green cob yield, straw yield and biological yield of maize were recorded under sole maize and among the nutrient levels application of 125% RDF application recorded the higher values for green cob yield, straw yield and biological yield. On the basis of maize equivalent yield, significantly higher maize equivalent yield observed under maize-cowpea 2:1 row arrangement with application of 100% RDF and which was found at par with the combination of 2:1 row arrangement with application of 125% RDF.