Productivity and Profitability of Moringa-Brinjal-Based Agroforestry Farming System

Abstract

An investigation was carried out to assess the productivity and profitability of brinjal during the initial phase of Moringa establishment. Experimental design employed a Randomized Complete Block Design with four distinct treatments: (i) T₁ (30 cm distance from the tree base), (ii) T₂ (40 cm distance from the tree base), (iii) T₃ (50 cm distance from the tree base), and (iv) T₄ (open field, control), each treatment being replicated four times. Data were systematically collected from randomly selected plants within each plot and subjected to statistical analysis. The findings indicated that the T₄ (control) treatment exhibited superior performance for various parameters, namely plant height, leaf number, branch number, fruit number, fruit weight, and yield. Treatment T₄ produced the highest values for fruit weight per plant (1.9 kg), single fruit weight (72.6 g), and fruit yield (34.2 t/ha). Following closely, T₃ ranked second with values of 1.6 kg, 67.4 g, and 28.3 t for fruit weight per plant, single fruit weight, and fruit yield per hectare, respectively. In contrast, T₁ yielded the lowest results in fruit weight per plant (0.76 kg), single fruit weight (59.6 g), and fruit yield (13.4 t/ha). The analysis of the land equivalent ratio revealed that treatment T₃ achieved the highest ratio at 1.81, indicating a positive correlation between a greater distance from the Moringa tree base and an increased brinjal yield. The study concludes that cultivating brinjal in association with one-year-old Moringa trees, while maintaining a 50 cm distance from the tree base, results in optimal yield.

J. of Sci. and Tech. Res. 5(1): 09-20, 2023