SCREENING OF POTATO VARIETY UNDER MORINGA BASED AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out in the Agroforestry and Environment Research Farm under the department of Agroforestry and Environment, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, during December 2016 to March 2017 to evaluate the varietal performance of potato under moringa based agroforestry system along with sole cropping. The experiment was laid out with two factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) following three replications. The treatments were, factor A: six potato varieties viz. V1 (Diamond), V2 (Carage), V3 (Granula), V4 (Cardinal), V6 (L-V-6); factor B: Two production systems viz. S1 (moringa + potato) and S2 (potato sole cropping). So, the treatment combinations were S1V1, S1V2, S1V3, S1V4, S1V5, S1V6, S2V1, S2V2, S2V3, S2V4, S2V5 and S2V6. The total numbers of experimental plots were 36. The result of the experiment revealed that plant height, leaf length, leaf breadth, no. of leaf shoot-1 , no. of shoot hill-1 , no. of tuber hill-1 , weight of tuber hill-1 , yield plot-1 , dry weight, and tuber grade hill-1 were significantly varied due to different potato varieties and production systems. In case of main effects of variety, the highest tuber yield (13.8 tha -1 ) was recorded in cardinal variety and the lowest tuber yield (8.83 tha -1 ) was recorded in L-V-6 variety. Again, in case of main effect of production system, the highest tuber yield per hectare (14.7 tha -1 ) was recorded in sole cropping of potato and the lowest tuber yield (10.73 tha -1 ) was found in moringa + potato based Agroforestry system. In case of interaction effect of the potato variety and production system, it was found that Cardinal variety gave highest yield (14.67 th-1 ) when it was grown under open condition i.e. Sole cropping, on the other hand L-V-6 variety gave lowest yield (7.73 tha -1 ) when it was cultivated at the floor of moringa orchard. Again, from the economic analysis, it was observed that the higher BCR (3.17) was recorded in Moringa + Potato based Agroforestry system. On the other hand, the lower BCR (2.79) was recorded from the sole cropping of Potato. However, the suitability of the cultivation of different potato variety under moringa based Agroforestry systems may be ranked as cardinal> asterix> carge> granula> diamond> L-V-6. Finally it may be concluded that out of six potato varieties cardinal would be the best variety to be grown under moringa based Agroforestry System considering the additional returns as per investment in terms of money and time.