Intercropping short duration leafy vegetables with pumpkin in subtropical alluvial soils of Bangladesh

Abstract

Intercropping may allow increasing both the productivity and diversity of crop through efficient utilization of land in densely populated countries like Bangladesh where fertility of agricultural land is declining gradually. A field experiment was conducted at a recently developed alluvial soil in Bangladesh during 2015–16 and 2016–17 winter seasons to select suitable leafy vegetables intercropping with pumpkin for higher productivity, better land and time utilization and maximum economic return. Six leafy vegetables viz., coriander green, red amaranth, radish green, mustard green, jute green, and spinach were intercropped with pumpkin and compared with sole pumpkin using a randomised complete block design. Intercropping leafy vegetables with pumpkin did not reduce pumpkin yield but increased system productivity by 39–120% over sole cropped pumpkin. All the intercropping combinations performed better than sole pumpkin. However, the highest system yield (72.7 & 75.6 t ha^–1), land equivalent ratio (1.74 & 1.75), area time equivalent ratio (1.20 & 1.16), net return (8001 & 8350 USD ha^–1) and benefit cost ratio (10.3 & 10.7) were obtained in 2015–16 & 2016–17, respectively from pumpkin + spinach system indicating that this system might be suitable for higher crop productivity, better land and time utilization as well as economic return for the selected area.