Growth and yield of soybean and millets in intercropping systems

A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Bailhongal, Belagavi district, Karnataka on mixed red and black medium soil during kharif-2016 to study the growth and yield of soybean and millets in intercropping systems (foxtail millet, finger millet and little millet) under different row proportions. The experiment was laidout in randomized completely block design with ten treatment combinations replicated thrice.Millets were intercropped with soybean at different row proportions (2:1 and 4:2) along with sole millets and soybean. Significantly higher leaf area (LA), leaf area index (LAI), number of branches and total dry matterwas recorded in sole soybean. Whereas, significantly lower leaf area, leaf area index, number of branches and total dry matter was recorded in 2:1 row ratio of soybean + little millet intercropping system. Similarly, among the millets sole foxtail millet recorded significantly higher leaf area, leaf area index, number of branches and total dry matter accumulation where as lower leaf area, leaf area index, number of tillers was recorded in soybean +little millet intercropping systems. Further, seed weight plant-1, grain weight in 30 cm row length of millets, soybean equivalent yield (SEY), land equivalent ratio (LER), area time equivalent ratio (ATER) were higher in 4:2 row ratio of soybean + foxtail millet compared to any of the sole and intercropping of soybean and little millet in 2:1row ratio. Similarly, gross returns, net returns and B-C ratio were significantly higher in 4:2 row ratio of soybean + foxtail millet.