Abstract
Intensive crop cultivation like inter-cropping is a reasonable agronomic practice to fulfill and sustain food security in areas where there is land shortage like that of Wondo Genet areas. An experiment was conducted at Wondo Genet Agricultural Research Center experimental farm to examine productivity and economic return. The experiment was a 2 × 4 factorial arrangement in RCBD consisting of ten treatments: two basil row arrangements; one tomato row alternating with one basil row (1T:1B) and one tomato row alternating with two basil rows (1T:2B) and four basil population densities (66666, 50000, 33333 and 16666 plants ha -1 ). Results of the study indicated that the intercropping of tomato with basil had a total LER value greater than one which showed the advantage of intercropping over sole cropping of each crop. Intercropping of tomato with basil at 100% population density gave a total LER value of 1.9 and MAI value of 194600 ETB ha -1 , respectively. Therefore, basil with a density of 33,333 plants ha -1 at a spacing of 100 cm × 30cm by 1T:1B row arrangements could be recommended for intercropping with tomato in the target area, based on its better compatibility, productivity, and economic benefit. Keywords: Economic return, Land Equivalent Ratio, Monetary Advantage Index DOI: 10.7176/ALST/91-03 Publication date: January 31 st 2022
Highlights
Tomato and basil are common pairs that are intercropped (Bomford, 2009)
The present experiment was conducted in Wondo Genet Agricultural Research Center, southern Ethiopia under irrigation conditions in the 2017/2018 cropping season to examine yield advantage and economic return of the tomato-basil inter-cropping system under different planting densities and row arrangements
The experiment was arranged in a 4x2 factorial combination in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) consisting of ten treatments including solely tomato and solely basil
Summary
Tomato and basil are common pairs that are intercropped (Bomford, 2009). Several studies reported the performance of inter-cropping of aromatic and medicinal plant species with selected major horticultural crops in Ethiopia and different countries (Bomford, 2004; Neelam and Lokho, 2009; Girma, 2015; Mutisya et al, .2016; Nigussie et al, 2017). Girma (2015) reported inter-cropping of maize with basil at a 1:1-row arrangement could provide farmers with the best yield advantage and income over sole planting of component (maize) crops. Girma (2015) reported inter-cropping of maize with basil at a 1:1-row arrangement could provide farmers with the best yield advantage and income over sole planting of component (maize) crops. The LER could be used either as an index of biological efficiency to evaluate the effects of various agronomic variables (e.g., fertility levels, density and spacing, comparison of cultivars performance, the relative time of sowing, and combinations) on an intercrop system in a locality or as an index of productivity across geographical locations to compare a variety of intercrop systems. Intercropping vegetables are traditionally common in the Wondo Genet area on small land of the home garden, the arrangement of crops is random, and improper planting density of component crops results in poor crop yields. Even though it is possible to increase tomato production by intercropping basil with tomato under proper planting density and row arrangements, yet no scientific research has been done to examine productivity and economic return of tomato-basil intercropping in the study area
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