North-western Indian farmers are increasingly showing interest in adopting horticulture-based systems to enhance their farm productivity with anticipated profits. So, there is a need for systematic evaluation of different pear-based agroecosystems with respect to its productivity, profitability, soil health, and biodiversity to tackle the problems of modern agriculture (food security, declining soil health, and sustainability). Therefore, an intercropping experiment comprising 11 treatments viz. [T1: Pear (Pyrus communis) + Pea (Pisum sativum), T2: Pear + Radish (Raphanus sativa), T3: Pear + Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), T4: Pear + Kasuri fenugreek (Trigonella corniculata), T5: Pear + fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), T6: Pear + Spinach (Spinacia oleracea), T7: Pear + Green onion (Allium fistolosum), T8: Pear + Cauliflower (Brassica oleraceae var. botrytis), T9: Pear + Toria (Brassica rapa), T10: Pear + Knol khol (Brassica oleraceae var. gongylodes) and T11: Pear monoculture] were laid out in randomized block design with three replications at farmer's field, Tarn Taran district, Punjab, India during 2021–22 and 2022–23. The results showed that the lesser values of bulk density (1.30 g/cm3) and higher water holding capacity (42.52%) were observed in the Pear + kasuri fenugreek intercropping system. All the legumes-based intercropping systems viz. Pear + kasuri fenugreek, Pear + fenugreek, and Pear + pea were significantly efficient in bringing enhancements to the chemical properties of the orchard's soil. Under various pear-based intercropping systems, different microbial populations (bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, and diazotrophs) were significantly higher in legume-based intercropping systems of Pear + kasuri fenugreek, Pear + fenugreek, and Pear + pea and resulting in more enzymatic activity in the soil in terms of dehydrogenase (63.02, 61.88, and 60.48 µg TPF/g of soil/hour, respectively), alkaline phosphatase (10.05, 9.92, and 9.75 µg PNP/g of soil/hour, respectively) and urease (17.84, 17.18, 17.00 µg /g of soil/hour, respectively). The intercropping system of Pear + kasuri fenugreek significantly increased microbial biomass carbon (42.20%) and microbial biomass nitrogen (65.02%) over Pear monoculture. The correlation analysis of various soil's physiochemical and biological parameters indicated significant associations among themselves at p = 0.01, 0.05. The intercropping system of Pear + kasuri fenugreek also produced significantly higher system productivity in early (122.20 kg/ha/day in 2021–22 and 123.86 kg/ha/day in 2022–23) and main season (119.08 kg/ha/day in 2021–22 and 121.60 kg/ha/day in 2022–23) due to significantly higher pear yield (340.02 q/ha in 2021–22 and 341.89 q/ha in 2022–23) and higher pear equivalent yield (105.99 in early season, 94.64 q/ha in main season of 2021–22 & 110.20 in early season, 101.94 q/ha in main season of 2022–23) observed by kasuri fenugreek, resulting in higher net returns, BC ratio and economic efficiency in both seasons during both years over other intercropping systems.
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