French bean intercropping with autumn sugarcane: A step towards higher resource use efficiency and profitability

Abstract

The adoption of the intercropping system has been made necessary by the rapidly growing population, increased food demand, limited scope for crop horizontal extension and diversified needs of farmers for both food and money. Intercropping is the practise of growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same piece of land in clearly defined rows in order to increase production per unit of space. It is a better and sustainable approach to make excellent use of the vacant space during the early growth stages of autumn planted sugarcane (3 to 4 months). Because of its wide spacing and slow growth, sugarcane is a long duration crop that provides ample opportunity for intercropping with short duration, high-value crops that generate income. This allows for increased household
nutrition and economic security, especially for small and marginal cane growers. This may improve the area used for autumn planting. Sugarcane + French bean (1: 2) intercropping showed the higher cane equivalent yield (106.0 t/ha) and net returns (`1, 87,400.0/ha) over sole sugarcane. The percentage increase in cane equivalent yield and net returns under sugarcane + French bean (1: 2)
intercropping over sole sugarcane was 16.2 and 22.7%, respectively.