Abstract

Tomato is a very good source of income for small and marginal farmers. It is a highly perishable fruit and so the market value is less. The income of the tomato farmers can be increased through introduction of intercropping practices. Development of proper intercropping system is one of the proper approaches to improve the profitability of the farmers. Based on this a field experiment was conducted during 2019 at Tirupattur district, Tamil Nadu, India to find out the effect of intercropping in tomato. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with ten treatments replicated thrice. The treatments comprised of three intercrops viz., radish, small onion and vegetable cowpea, and three levels of recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) viz., 100, 125 and 150 % along with sole crop of tomato under 100 % RDF. Results indicated higher fruit yield (99.16 t/ha), tomato equivalent yield (210400 kg/ha), land equivalent ratio (1.63), area time equivalent ratio (1.54) and production efficiency (1753.33 kg/ha/day) with benefit cost ratio of 4.08 and income equivalent ratio of 1.63 under application of FYM @ 25 t/ha + 150% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers in tomato + small onion intercropping system. The above said treatment was found to be at par with tomato + vegetable cowpea, under the application of FYM @ 25 t/ha+ 150 % recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers. In view of the above facts, it may be concluded that by adopting the above said treatments, farmers can effectively utilize their land area and time and increase their income and production efficiency besides minimizing soil erosion, which are the serious drawbacks of mono-cropping. It also reduces seasonal work peaks as a result of the different planting and harvesting times of intercropping crops.