Effect of different intercrops on yield and quality of mango production in new alluvial zone of West Bengal.
Singh S. R., Banik B. C., Yumnam S. S.
Author Affiliation: Department of Horticulture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal (Manipur), India.
Asian Journal of Horticulture 7 : 582-585
Abstract : An experiment on the performance of intercropping in mango orchard (cv. HIMSAGAR) was conducted at Central Research Station, Gayeshpur, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal to study the suitability and profitably with different intercrops of cowpea, French bean, arhar, soyabean, lentil, blackgram and chickpea during the period 2010-2012. The age of the plant was 7 years old with a spacing of 10×10 m which provide the utilization of land space between the plants as an intercrop. In respect of total number of fruits/tree, average fruit weight and fruit yield (kg/ha) were noticed a significant variation among the treatments. The pooled data reveals that the maximum number of fruits 192.41/tree and yield 46.09 kg/tree were found in mango+cowpea whereas maximum fruit weight (254.16 g) in mango+lentil. Most of the physical parameters such as fruit length and breadth maximum were recorded (8.20 cm and 7.21 cm, respectively) in mango+cowpea. But, in case of peel weight (35.67 g) was highest in mango+soyabean whereas the higher stone weight (35.79 g) was in sole crop (mango) only. Again, pulp weight and pulp:stone ratio (193.53 g and 5.80) were observed in mango+French bean, respectively. The quality parameters showed non-significant variation among the different treatments in which highest TSS (17.88°Brix) was observed in mango+lentil, where maximum reducing sugar (4.37%) was in mango+soybean closely followed by mango+lentil (4.30%). In case of acidity, the lowest acidity (0.14%) was occurred in mango+lentil and mango+French bean. It was clear from the investigation that the more yield was from the main crop along the intercrop as compared with the clean cultivation.