Economic assessment of maize (Zea mays L.) – Spinach (Basella alba L.) intercropping system for improving the livelihood of smallholders’ in South-Asia

The study was undertaken at Regional Agricultural Research Station of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Ishurdi, Pabna, Bangladesh in consecutive two years of 2015 and 2016 for evaluating the performance of maize and Indian spinach intercropping (MIS) under different row spacing for higher profitability through economic assessment. Five different cropping systems viz., T1 : hybrid maize normal row along with one row of spinach, T2 : hybrid maize paired row along with one row of spinach, T3 : hybrid maize paired row along with two rows of spinach, T4 : hybrid maize paired row along with three rows of spinach and T5 : sole maize were included in this experiment. The performance of the component crops was evaluated regarding total grain and vegetable yield, competitive functions, and economic returns. The results indicate that yield and yield contributing characters of maize were not significantly affected by the intercrop of spinach at different ratios. Maize paired row along with three rows of spinach (IS) (T4 ) combination had higher maize equivalent yield (11.06 t ha-1), gross return (US$ 1,499 ha-1), gross margin (US$ 564 ha-1) and benefitcost ratio (BCR) (2.07) than others treatments. This intercropping system also recorded higher land equivalent ratio, monetary advantage index, land equivalent coefficient, income equivalent ratio and area time equivalent ratio of 1.24, US$ 2,434 ha-1, 0.30, 1.24 and 1.18, respectively. Hence, this cropping system may adopt in the smallholders’ for getting maximum benefits in prevailing climate change.