PERFORMANCE OF MANGO BASED AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM WITH DIFFERENT SUMMER VEGETABLES COMBINATIONS

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to determine the growth and economic performance of mango (Mangifera indica L.) based agroforestry with four different summer vegetables during the early establishment period of plantation at Panchbibi upazila in Joypurhat district from March to August, 2018. The growth parameters (height, number of leaves and leaf length), yield contributing characters (number of fruit per plant and single fruit weight), yield and economic evaluation of vegetables influenced by mango tree were also determined. Four vegetables were okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia), Indian spinach (Basella alba) and brinjal (Solanum melongena). Each vegetable was grown using 3 treatments (T1=full shade, T2=partial shade and T3=open/full sunlight) laid out using single factor Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications as separate experiment. The result of the four vegetables experiment revealed that the different shade condition under tree had significant effect on growth and yield of vegetables under mango based agroforestry systems. Except number of fruits per plant all the growth parameter like plant height, number of leaves, leaf length, single fruit weight number of fruits per plant and yield of okra were varied significantly. All the growth parameters and yield of bitter gourd and Indian spinach were varied significantly. But all the growth parameters and yield except single fruit weight of brinjal were also varied significantly. However, the highest yield of four vegetables i.e. okra (14.13 ton/ha), bitter gourd (21.77 ton/ha), Indian spinach (31.87 ton/ha) and brinjal (34.78 ton/ha) was recorded from open condition (T3). On the other hand the lowest yield of four vegetables like okra (8.90 ton/ha), bitter gourd (13.57 ton/ha), Indian spinach (21.78 ton/ha) and brinjal (28.80 ton/ha) was recorded from full shade condition (T1). From the economic analysis, it was observed that economic return was also varied due to different shade effect although the cost of production of each vegetable was same at the different treatment. The highest BCR of four summer vegetables i.e. okra (1.57), bitter gourd (2.16), Indian spinach (1.99) and brinjal (4.30) was observed from open condition (T3) in mango based agroforestry. On the other hand the lowest BCR of four summer vegetables i.e. okra (1.06), bitter gourd (1.34), Indian spinach (1.44) and brinjal (3.57) was observed from full shade condition (T1) at the floor of mango tree. The comparative analysis from BCR of these vegetables it was observed that the highest BCR (3.95) was recorded from mango+brinjal combination (E4) and the lowest was BCR (1.35) was found in mango+okra combination (E1). Therefore, the most profitable practice for cultivating vegetable under mango trees was brinjal cultivation (brinjal+mango). Finally, it may be concluded that different summer crops like okra, bitter gourd, Indian spinach and brinjal can be cultivated successfully under mango based agroforestry at early stage considering the additional returns as per investment in terms of money and time.