Performance of green gram - sesame mixed croppingin the red and lateritic zone of West Bengal

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out in the red and lateritic soil of Regional Research Station, Jhargram, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya,West Bengal during the prekharif season of 2015 to evaluate the technological feasibility of mixed cropping of green gram with sesame under different seeding ratio. The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design with four replications. The treatments comprises for the experiment were T1-sole green gram, T2-sole sesame, T3-green gram: sesame -90:10, T4- green gram : sesame-75 : 25, T5- green gram : sesame-60 : 40 , T6 –green gram : sesame-50 : 50. Yield parameters like number branch/plant, number of pod/ plant, number of capsule/plant, pod length, number of grain per pod/capsule, grain weight etc. were studied. The highest grain yield for both crop was obtained from the sole cropping of green gram and sole sesame. The maximum land equivalent ratio(LER) of 1.18 was observed at green gram : sesame seeding ratio of 60 : 40.The highest green gram equivalent yield( 9.49 q/ha) was obtained from green gram : sesame seeding ratio of 60 : 40 . It was noticed that in all the mixed cropping systems, there was higher LER which indicates higher yield advantage over the sole crop.