Description:
In mid-hill of Nepal, the cereal-legume intercropping has popularly been practice to optimize yield potentiality and profitability, however, intercropping facilitating variety of maize are hardly tested. A field experiment was conducted at Agriculture Knowledge Center, Ghyalchowk, Gorkha in 2021/22 to explore the yield performance of maize varieties in sole and intercropping and to determine the possibilities of improvement of intercropping productivity through selection of suitable varieties. The four maize varieties [viz., Arun-2, Rampur composite, Rampur hybrid-10, Rasi-3033 hybrid] were planted in randomized complete block design lay-out to compare the suitability of different maize varieties in intercropping. Field experiment showed average grain yield of maize intercropped with cowpea was reduced non-significantly, however the open pollinated varieties (namely Arun-2 & Rampur composite) produced significantly lower grain yield, mainly due to lower number of kernel rows, number of kernels and test weight. The number of kernel rows, number of kernels and test weight were statistically similar between Rasi-3033 hybrid and Rampur hybrid-10 in both sole and intercropping system, so their grain yield was not greatly changed in intercropping. The major yield component for restricting yield in intercrop was number of kernels/row with higher coefficient of determination. However, test weight was the most important limiting factor in sole. In overall, hybrids varieties yields outstanding than OPV’s indicates that hybrids are good for better intercropping yield productivity to farmers