www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 14.139.224.82 on dated 27-Dec-2016 441 Indian J. Hort. 73(3), September 2016: 441-444 Intercropping may be an alternate practice for surmounting low productivity in case of low input-low output and small-scale farming systems. Highly- efficient use of land and related profitability are important not only in the development of intercropping systems per se, but also in other applications, which have tremendous potential independent of proftability. However, as the level of productivity increases due to technological improvements, it has become imperative to ascertain whether intercropping as compared to sole cropping shall remain the most proftable, productive and resource effcient cropping system. It could be hypothesized that inter-crops may outperform sole crops because of improved resource capture and resource use effciency. Experience of intercropping autumn sugarcane with winter vegetables showed enhanced effcacy of herbicide for weed control (Kaur et al., 3). With particular reference of the developed agriculture, Williams and Gordon (7) reported that the success of many intercropping systems in North America is attributable to the generation of a short term return from an agricultural crop during the early, unproftable years of a longer term crop that is fruit, nuts or wood. Srivastava et al. (5) concluded that pooled data analysis for intercropped versus monocropped citrus orchards showed superiority of mono-cultured (68.5 kg/tree) over intercropped (51.4 kg/tree) orchards. But, intercrop specifc analysis revealed that citrus orchards with legumes as intercrop (soybean and chickpea), produced signifcantly higher fruit yield (72.2 kg/ tree) compared to orchards without intercrops (68.5 kg tree 1 ). These legume-based intercropped orchards maintained much higher levels of leaf nutrients than the orchards without intercrops. In an intercropping experiment (Swain, 6) to assess the effect of various intercrops on the performance of mango in the rainfed uplands of Odisha, it was found that the mango + guava + cowpea intercropping system exhibited better performance in terms of plant height, girth, canopy area, fruit weight and fruit yield of mango closely followed by mango + guava + french bean system. Highest LER was obtained with mango + guava + cowpea intercropping system. Kabura et al. (2) compared various pepper- onion intercrop spacing and sole plantings in Nigeria. The sole plantings generally out-yielded the intercrops, but some combinations gave overall LER values greater than 1.0. Recommended spacing for intercrops varied depending on the primary crop in the system. This paper examines the on-farm performance assessment of various intercropping systems of vegetables, fruit and fodder in the newly established lemon orchard. The specifc objective of the trial was to assess the best ft intercropping system in the lemon orchard and also to see the relative productivity and proftability of the system under various crop combinations. The experiment was conducted in the village Badarpur Said under Faridabad district of Haryana under the ‘Model Village Project’ being implemented in this village since October 2010 by ICAR-IARI, New Delhi. For integrated development of agri-horti system in the village in integrated crop management mode, a lemon orchard was established in the area of 2,000 sq. m. in the year 2011. The lemon variety Baramasi (Citrus limon) procured from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana was planted in the orchard as per the scientifc practices recommended for this variety. In the frst Assessing citrus (lemon) based intercropping in the irrigated areas of northern plains of Haryana S.K. Dubey * , Nishi Sharma ** , J.P. Sharma, Ambrish Sharma and Nand Kishore Division of Agril. Extension, CATAT, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012 ABSTRACT On-farm experiment was conducted in the village Badarpursaid of Faridabad district in Haryana to assess the various intercrop combination in the lemon orchard during 2011 to 2014. The lemon variety Baramasi (Citrus limon) was planted in the area of 2,000 sq. m. in the year 2011. During rabi 2011 to rabi 2013-14, different crops like winter vegetables (cabbage and caulifower), summer crops as muskmelon and fodder maize and kharif crops of maize (cob and fodder) and fodder sorghum were grown as intercrop in the orchard. The comparison was made in terms of net return from the system, crop productivity index and land equivalent ratio. Results showed that the best intercropping system was lemon + fodder maize – muskmelon - caulifower. There was enhancement in land utilization, cropping intensity and farmers' income. Key words: Intercropping system, lemon orchard, land use system, on-farm experiment. Short communication **Corresponding author's E-mail: nishisharm@gmail.com *ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh DOI : 10.5958/0974-0112.2016.00094.3