Abstract

Groundnut is one of the major oilseed crops of India accounting for 25% of total oilseed production in the country. India's vegetable oil requirement by 2022 is estimated 33.2 million tonnes and currently imports about 70% of the requirement accounting for about 73, 000 crores per annum. Further, industrialization and urbanization have led to decrease land availability, moreover, farmers primarily focus on cultivation of cash crops like cotton, maize, etc. This along with pulses shortage has led to malnutrition creating a serious consequence to the growing generation. This situation can be overcome by intercropping system which aims at increasing productivity at a particular time, but also insurances against total crop failure. It is very important that the performance under intercropping system depends on the selection of suitable intercrop where both sustain and bloom. This review outlines on groundnut based intercropping with castor, blackgram, sesame and pearl millet crops. From the review collected it could be confirmed that groundnut performs well under intercropping system but with certain short duration crops. This could be primarily due to the lesser shading effect caused by the companion short duration crop and also enhanced pod development after the harvest. Therefore, the compatibility within the intercropping systems needs to be clearly understood and thereby disseminated to the farming community the backbone of our nation.