Reciprocal effect of component crops grown in mixed culture

To investigate the reciprocal effect of crops grown together for improvement of total production, an experiment was conducted at the Arid Zone Research Institute Dera Ismail Khan. The leguminous crops of mung and guar were grown alone and in combination with sorghum in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. The results showed that the physiological growth, yield components and grain yield of the component crops were significantly affected by each other. Data on plant height, leaf area index, grain weight, pods/plant, grains/pod and grain yield of each specie evinced decreasing trend in mixed culture compared to sole crops. Despite reduction in grain yield of sorghum, mung and guar due to reciprocal effect on each other, the grain equivalent yield total was increased in either case. The profit of 6.49 and 6.28% was achieved with mung and guar compared to sole cropping of sorghum, respectively. These findings suggest that the over all agricultural productivity can be increased through mixed cropping and efficient use of land resources in Pakistan.