Assessment of yield advantages, competitiveness and economic benefits of diversified direct-seeded upland rice-based intercropping systems under strip geometry of planting

A field study to assess the yield advantage, competitiveness and economics of diversified direct-seeded upland rice-based intercropping systems under strip geometry of planting, was conducted on a sandy-clay loam soil at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. The intercropping treatments comprised rice alone, rice + maize, rice + sesbania, rice + mungbean, rice + rice bean, rice + cowpea and rice + pigeon pea. All the intercrops were grown as forage and harvested 45 days after sowing while the rice crop was harvested at its physiological maturity as a grain crop. The results revealed that all intercropping systems gave substantially higher yield advantages over monocropped rice in terms of total rice grain yield equivalent (16.42 to 37.67%) and land equivalent ratio (25 to 75%) and area time equivalent ratio (8 to 23%) with the maximum for rice + maize intercropping system. Similarly considerable economic benefits were achieved from the in tercropped rice over monocropped rice with the highest from rice + maize (Rs.42325 per ha) followed by rice + cowpea (Rs.30885 per ha) and rice + rice bean (Rs.29625 per ha) compared to the minimum (Rs.26526 per ha) from sole crop of rice. The component crops in each intercropping system did not compete equally. All the intercrops indicated dominant behaviour over the base rice crop. Pigeon pea and cowpea were the least competitive intercrops while maize and sesbania appeared to be better competitive when grown in association with rice crop.