Productivity, Competitive Interactions and Soil Responses of Maize, Sorghum and Cowpea under Different Intercropping Systems in Red and Lateritic Soils of West Bengal, India
Sayon Banerjee
School of Agriculture Science Sona Devi University, Ghatshila, Jharkhand, India and Department of Agriculture, Midnapore City College, Kuturiya, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India.
Rohit Das
Department of Agriculture, Midnapore City College, Kuturiya, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India.
Shrabanti Maity
Department of Biological Science (Agriculture), Midnapore City College, Kuturiya, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India.
Pratonu Bandyopadhyay
Department of Biological Science (Agriculture), Midnapore City College, Kuturiya, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India.
Tapan Das
Department of Biological Science (Agriculture), Midnapore City College, Kuturiya, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India.
Anirban Bhowmik
*
Department of Biological Science (Agriculture), Midnapore City College, Kuturiya, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Intercropping can improve land-use efficiency and overall productivity through complementary resource use, although competition among component crops may affect individual crop performance. A field experiment was conducted during December–April 2025 under red and lateritic soil conditions of Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, to evaluate the productivity, competitive interactions, economic performance and post-harvest soil properties of maize, sorghum and cowpea grown as sole and intercrop systems. Seven treatments comprising sole maize (T₁), sole sorghum (T₂), sole cowpea (T₃), maize + cowpea (T₄), sorghum + cowpea (T₅), maize + sorghum (T₆) and maize + sorghum + cowpea (T₇) were evaluated in a randomized block design with three replications. Maize + cowpea (T₄) produced the highest maize growth and maintained a grain yield of 6.23 t ha⁻¹ compared with 5.97 t ha⁻¹ in sole maize. Sorghum + cowpea (T₅) significantly increased sorghum grain yield to 3.90 t ha⁻¹ compared with 3.68 t ha⁻¹ in sole sorghum. Cowpea yield declined under intercropping, with the greatest reduction in T₇. All intercrop systems recorded calculated land equivalent ratios greater than unity, with the highest value in T₇ (2.52). T₇ also recorded the highest reported maize equivalent yield (18.87 t ha⁻¹), gross return (₹362,138.5 ha⁻¹) and net return (₹250,312.5 ha⁻¹), whereas T₅ recorded the highest reported benefit:cost ratio (2.77). Cowpea-containing systems generally maintained higher post-harvest soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and available nitrogen. Overall, maize + cowpea (T₄), sorghum + cowpea (T₅) and the three-component system (T₇) showed distinct advantages in component-crop and system-level performance.
Keywords: Maize, sorghum, cowpea, intercropping, land equivalent ratio, maize equivalent yield, competitive interaction, soil fertility, economic return, red and lateritic soil