Relay cropping of cucurbits in furrows under bed planted wheat for higher profitability

Abstract

A field experiment was condcuted for four consecutive seasons
from 2016-17 to 2019-20 at ICAR- Indian Institute of Wheat and
Barley Research, Karnal, Haryana with an objective to increase
the profitability through relay crops of cucurbits under bed planted
wheat crop. Eight relay crops namely musk melon, water melon,
bottle guard, ridge guard, bitter guard, cucumber (kheera), cucumber
(tarkakari) were planted under bed planting system with wheat. All the
cucurbits were relayed in furrows at milk stage of wheat. Combined
over four years analysis revealed that wheat + bottle guard produced
maximum and signifiantly higher wheat equivalent yield (WEY), gross
return, net return and B: C ratio, which was 80.5%, 80.5%, 227.1% and
80.0% higher than sole wheat crop, respectively. Next best profitable
treatment was wheat + cucumber (tarkakari), which also produced
39.8%, 112.3% and 40.0% higher WEY, net return and B: C ratio as
compared to sole wheat crop, respectively. All the relayed cucurbits
were profitable than sole wheat crop and there was no adverse effect
on yield attributes and wheat yield . Thus, small and marginal farmers
can adopt this relayed cropping sytem to maximise their profit per
unit time and space.