Pinto bean and black mustard responses to bio-fertilizers under intercropping system

In order to evaluate the response of pinto bean and black mustard intercropping to application of biological and chemical nitrogen fertilizers, a factorial set of treatments was arranged within randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. In this experiment, fertilizer treatments were non-fertilizer, bio-fertilizers, bio-fertilizers + 50% chemical urea fertilizer (125 kg/ha) and bio-fertilizers + 100% chemical fertilizer (250 kg/ha). The cropping patterns comprised pure stands of bean and black mustard, additive intercropping with a ratio of 50% black mustard + optimum density of pinto bean mono cultures and an additive intercropping with optimum density of two species in mono cultures. Application of bio-fertilizers and chemical fertilizer increased most of the agronomic traits in pinto bean and black mustard plants. The bio-fertilizers + 100% of urea followed by bio-fertilizers + 50% of urea were the superior treatments, compared with other fertilizers. Evaluation of intercropping patterns with using land equivalent ratio (LER), relative yield total (RYT), relative value total (RVT) and relative crowding coefficient (RCC) indices showed that the highest LER and RYT were recorded for bio-fertilizer + 100% chemical fertilizer treatment. The highest RVT and RCC were obtained from control treatment (non-fertilization) in inter-cropping (optimum density of two species). Based on the LER, RVT, RYT and RCC indices, it was evident that intercropping of pinto bean and black mustard was more beneficial than mono cultures. Therefore, it was generally concluded that intercropping pattern was better than monocultures of two species at different levels of fertilizers and also bio-fertilizers application could increase efficiency of chemical fertilizer. Thus, bio-fertilizers + 100% chemical fertilizer and intercropping of pinto bean and black mustard was the better treatment.