Abstract

Experiments were conducted at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore to assess the biological and economic advantages of maize-soybean intercropping system under varying levels of irrigation and nitrogen during summer and kharif seasons of 1990. Though, land equivalent ratio (LER) recorded a positive value under varying levels of intercrops, irrigation and nitrogen, the land equivalent coefficient (LEC) showed its superiority in measuring the competition aspects in intercropping. The monetary equivalent ratio (MER) was modified with a new concept called net monetary equivalent ratio (NMER) by accounting the net returns for computing the economic efficiency in intercropping studies. Both biological and economic indices revealed that two rows of intercrop soybean was essential for effective utilisation of resources and for better economic output.

Keywords: Maize, Soybean, Intercropping, LER, LEC, MER, NMER