PERFORMANCE OF FORAGE AND LEGUMES INTERCROPPING IN JATROPHA CURCAS PLANTATION IN SEMI-ARID REGION OF HARYANA
M. K. SINGH*, MAHAVIR PARSHAD, R. K. ARYA1, PAWAN KUMAR2 AND K. S. AHLAWAT
Department of Forestry, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004
Agronomy, and Plant Breeding1
*(Email: mks.hau.cssri@gmail.com)
(Received: 28 January, 2013, Accepted: 9 July, 2013)
SUMMARY
A field experiment was conducted to identify suitable crops for Jatropha based intercropping system during winter season of 2005-06 and 2006-07 at Department of Forestry Farm, CCS HAU, Hisar. The production potential of greengram (Vigna radiata). cv-MH-96-1, clusterbean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba). cv-HG-563, mothbean (Phaseolus aconitifolius). cv-RMO-40 and pearlmillet (Pennisetum typhoides). cv-HHB-67 were evaluated under 5m x 3m spacing of Jatropha planted in September 2003. Jatropha plantation had no significant effect on the growth and yield of test crops during the first year of experimentation except that mothbean, branching and yield was significantly reduced over control. However, the growth, yield and yield attributes of all the test crops were reduced significantly in Jatropha based intercropping system over control during the second year of experimentation. Two year old Jatropha produced negligible seed yield both during 2005-06 and 2006-07 due to frost injury in 2005-06 and excessive vegetative growth during 2006-07. Therefore, susceptibility of Jatropha to frost, requirement of irrigation for flowering and fruiting and poor seed yield has rendered it unsuitable for north India.
Key words: intercropping, greengram, clusterbean, mothbean, pearlmillet and Jatropha curcas