Journal of Applied and Natural Science 10 (4): 1124 -1129 (2018) ISSN : 0974-9411 (Print), 2231-5209 (Online) journals.ansfoundation.org Performance of intercropping in pre-bearing mango orchards under drip irrigation in a degraded land S. Pradhan* ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar–751023, India P. Sahu ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar–751023, India P. Panigrahi ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar–751023, India K.G. Mandal ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar–751023, India S. K. Ambast ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar–751023, India *Corresponding author. E-mail: sanatan28@gmail.com Abstract A field experiment was carried out to evaluate the performance of pre-bearing mango plantation with different intercrops (papaya, pineapple and combination of papaya and pineapple) in a sandy clay loam soil on a degraded land under drip irrigation at ICAR- Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar, Odisha during 2017-18. Different intercrops planted in the mango (cv. Amrapali) were (i) two rows of papaya (cv. Red lady) in either side of mango plants, (ii) two paired rows of pineapple (cv. Queen) in either side of mango plants and (iii) one row of papaya and one paired row of pineapple in either side of mango plants with and without paddy straw mulch. All plants were irrigated by drip irrigation (DI) system. The amount of water used in mango–papaya cropping system (1220 mm) was higher than that in mango-pineapple cropping (975 mm). The volumetric soil water content in top 0.60 m soil in mango, papaya and pineapple were 20 -23%, 21- 24% and 22-24%, respectively. The vegetative growth parameters (plant height, canopy diameter and trunk girth) of young mango plants were not affected significantly either by papaya or pineapple intercropping. Straw mulch enhanced the growth parameters of mango plants by 8-12%. Similarly, growth parameters of papaya and pineapple were not affected significantly either by intercrops or by straw mulch. The highest yield (17.5 t/ha) and water productivity (21.1 kg/ha.mm) were observed in mango–pineapple system with straw much. The net profit from pineapple intercropping with straw mulch was highest (Rs. 140000/ ha) with benefit-cost ratio of 1.67, followed by papaya-pineapple intercrop- ping with straw mulch in mango. Overall, the study reveals that mango intercropped with pineapple under drip irrigation with rice straw mulch can be practiced in pre-bearing man- go orchards of Eastern India. Keywords: Drip irrigation, Intercropping, Pre-bearing mango, Water productivity, Yield Article Info DOI:10.31018/jans.v10i4.1828 Received: July 12, 2018 Revised: September 19, 2018 Accepted: October 9, 2018 How to Cite Pradhan, S. et al. (2018). Performance of intercrop- ping in pre-bearing mango orchards under drip irriga- tion in a degraded land. Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 10(4): 1124 -1129 INTRODUCTION Long juvenile period i.e. duration between plant- ing to fruiting is one of the major constraints in fruit production by small and medium farmers. However, due to higher profit and favourable agro -climates, the area under fruit crops has been increased from 4.01 million hectares in 2001–02 to 6.08 million hectares in 2016–17. Mango is the most important and widely grown tropical fruit crop of India, covering an area of 2.26 million hec- tares with an annual production of 19.68 million tonnes (GoI, 2017). Eastern India is one of the potential zones for mango cultivation with at least 3–4 years of juvenile period (Swain, 2014). The orchard growers pay substantial amount of inter- est on the financial investment in establishing and maintenance of orchards in the region. In this sce- nario, growing of suitable intercrops in mango or- chards in initial periods of plantation are utmost essential. Intercropping in mango orchards was earlier stud- ied by different researchers. Rajput et al. (1989) has advocated intercrops in mango orchard during pre-bearing stage in order to get additional in- come. Singh et al. (2012) studied the effect of in- tercrops like cowpea, french bean, arhar, soy- This work is licensed under Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). © 2018: Author (s). Publishing rights @ ANSF.