Agrobio-economic return in radish–coriander intercropping under green manuring and population densities

Radish and coriander are vegetables that complement each other when intercropped under organic fertilizer and the ideal density of the component crops. In view of this, this study aimed to evaluate the treatments, similar amounts of green manure and population densities of coriander in the biological parameters of the radish–coriander intercrop and determine the interaction between these treatments that provides the greatest economic return in a semi-arid environment. The experimental design used was randomized blocks, with treatments arranged in a 4 × 4 factorial scheme with four replications. The first factor consisted of Merremia aegyptia and Calotropis procera biomass amounts in the proportion of 50% for each green manure at doses of 20, 35, 50 and 65 t ha−1 on a dry basis. The second factor comprised four coriander population densities of 400, 600, 800 and 1000 thousand plants ha−1. The radish and coriander cultivars planted were ‘Crimson Gigante’ and ‘Verdão’, respectively. Significant agro-biological returns from this radish–coriander intercrop were obtained at a land equivalent ratio of 2.00, intercropping advantage of 11.39, canonical variable Z score of 2.45, radish aggressivity over coriander of 1.04, and actual yield loss of 2.15 with the incorporation of 65 t ha−1 of hairy woodrose and roostertree into the soil using a coriander population density of 1 million plants ha−1. The greatest economic return from radish–coriander intercropping (107,278.10 BRL ha−1) was achieved with the application of 25.88 t ha−1 of green manure biomass to the soil and a coriander population density of 1 million plants ha−1.