Productive, profitable and energy-efficient Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. based vegetable intercropping system under Northern Telangana zone

Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. based intercropping systems offer considerable scope for improving productivity, profitability and resource-use efficiency (RUE) under sustainable agricultural production systems. An experiment was conducted in rabi season 2022 at the Agricultural Research Station, Adilabad, Telangana to test the efficiency of intercropping different vegetables in mustard with different row ratios. A total of 13 treatments comprising sole crops such as mustard, sole root vegetables (radish, beetroot, carrot and potato) and their combination under 2 : 2 and 3 : 3 row ratios were considered in the randomised block design (RBD) of the experiment. It was found that the highest total economic yield (24212 kg ha-1), mustard equivalent yield (5775 kg ha-1), gross returns (₹338968 ha-1), net returns (₹264526 ha-1) and benefit-cost ratio (B : C) ratio (4.55) were obtained from the monocropping of radish. While among intercropping combinations, mustard with radish under 3 : 3 row ratio yielded the highest total economic yield (13515 kg ha-1), mustard equivalent yield (3964 kg ha-1), mustard oil yield (351 kg ha-1), gross returns (₹216033 ha-1), net returns (₹160966) and B : C ratio (3.92). These results were statistically comparable with mustard with radish at ratio 2 : 2. An energetic efficiency analysis concluded that the performance of the mustard with radish (3 : 3 and 2 : 2) was favourable with respect to high energy productivity (0.60 and 0.61 kg MJ-1) and low specific energy (1.66 and 1.63 MJ kg-1) among the intercropping methods. Therefore, mustard intercropping with radish at 3 : 3 and 2 : 2 row ratios could be considered the most beneficial and lucrative intercropping method in northern Telangana. Further multi-season and multi-location studies are required to validate the findings before making broader recommendations.