Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.), the queen of cereals, has versatile use as food, feed and industrial purpose and the area under maize is increasing during recent times. As a widely spaced crop, it offers inclusion of intercrops without reducing the optimum plant stand. Intercropping legumes in maize is widely practiced to herness the efficient use of resource and multiple advantages. Based on the above facts, an experiment was conducted during summer season of 2021 on intercropping maize with legumes at Experimental Farm of Centurion University of Technology and Management, Parlakhamundi, Odisha. The experiment was carried out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) comprising of nine treatments namely, T1: Maize sole, T2: Cowpea sole, T3: Cluster bean sole, T4: Maize + Cowpea (2:1), T5: Maize + Cowpea (2:2), T6: Maize + Cowpea (2:3), T7: Maize + Cluster bean (2:1), T8: Maize + Cluster bean (2:2) and T9: Maize + Cluster bean (2:3). The results revealed that the yield attributes of maize such as number of cobs/plant, number of rows/cob, number of seeds/row, test weight and cob length and maize yield were not significantly influenced among the treatments. In case of Land Equivalent Ratio (LER), the values obtained in all the intercropped treatments were greater than unity which clearly showed that intercropping was advantageous. However, the maximum LER and Area Time Equivalent Ratio (ATER) were obtained from 2:3 row proportion of maize + cluster bean and it was followed by maize + cowpea in 2:3 row ratio. Product of Relative Crowding Coefficient (RCC) was found maximum in the case of maize + cowpea (2:3). The competitive ratio depicts that those legumes were more competitive over maize. The study indicated that intercropping 2:3 row proportion of maize + vegetable legumes were advantageous over pure stand of maize.