Abstract
Intercropping is an economically beneficial and a favorable measure for the fertility restoration of agricultural lands. A two year study on herbicide application and legume maize intercropping was undertakenat the New Developmental Farm of the University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistanduring maize-mungbean growing seasons of 2014 and 2015. The experiments were laid out in a split plot design with herbicide use as factor A and intercropping as factor B. The maize crop was sown in June and harvested in September. The results revealed that the herbicide application (factor A) and the intercropping treatments (factor B) both significantly affected the weed density (m(-2)), fresh biomass of weeds, yield and yield components of mungbean. The application of herbicide improved the No. of grains pod(-1) , 1000 grains weight (g), the biological and grain yields of mungbean as compared to the no herbicide use plots; while no herbicide treatment increased weeds density m(-2) and fresh weeds biomass. In terms of intercropping, overall sole mungbean performed well as compared to the intercropping treatments. However, among the intercropping treatments, intercropping method of ten rows of mungbeancrop with sixrows of maize crop resulted in significantly higher biological and grain yields as compared to the yields in the treatment of five rows ofmungbeancrop intercropped with sixrows of maize crop. In conclusion, the application of herbicide pendimethalin1.5 kg a.i. ha(-1)is recommended for the desirable weed control in mungbean crop intercropped with maize crop in order to achieve best yields. Further, the intercropping of mungbean with maize at the combination of 10mungbean rows intercropped with 6 maize rows with a ratio of 2:1 is better for achieving good yield of mungbean crop in maize-mungbean intercropping system. For the interaction of pendimethalin application in the intercropping of mungbean with maize by sowing two mungbean rows between each two adjacent maize rows is the best choice.