Bioeconomic assessment of mung-mash intercropping system

Investigations into the comparative productive efficiency and feasibility of different mung-mash intercropping, system were carried out at the Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, during the Summer 2000. The intercropping systems comprised of mung alone mash alone, one row of mung, mung + two rows of mash, mung + three rows of mash and mung + four rows of mash. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications. The net plot size measured 3.2 x 8.0 m. Mung was planted in 100 cam apart four-row strips with 20 cm space between the rows of each strip, while the mash was intercropped between the mung strips. The results obtained are summarized below: The various yield components of mung like number of plants m-2 and protein content were not affected significantly by the various patterns of intercropping under study, while the plant height, number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant, number of seeds/pod, 1000 weight, grain yield, straw yield, harvest index and biological yield were influenced significantly. Intercropping of mash between the mung strips in the patterns of one, two, three and four -rows reduced the mung yield to the extent of 3.89, 11.29, 16.55 and 22.58 percent, respectively over mung alone, while at the cost of this much reduction in mung yield an additional harvest of 6.03, 9.84 and 10.32 t ha-1 of mash was obtained respective patterns which compensated much more than losses in mung production. The highest total grain yield of 26.32 q/ha was recorded in case of mung + three rows of mash intercropping system as against 22.2, 23.55, 25.61, 19.75 and 15.82 q/ha for mung + one row of mash, mung + two rows of mash, mung + four rows of mash, mung alone and mash alone, respectively. The highest LER value of 1.45 was recorded mung + three rows of mash intercropping system as against 1.16, 1.26 and 1.42 for mung + one row of mash, mung + two rows of mash and mung + four rows of mash, respectively. In conclusions, intercropping of mash in mung not only appeared a productive practice but also highly remunerative and economical as compared to sole cropping of mung.