Abstract

Yala season is a water scared dry period in Up Country Intermediate Zone of Sri Lanka. Majority of famers suffering with yield losses associated with unavailability of water, high temperature and hazardous winds in June to August period. To mitigate these adverse climatic conditions farmer has to select tolerant crop types. Chilli is such type of drought tolerant crop, not much proven to the wind damage and it can survive low soil water conditions while giving yield over five months. Cabbage is a short term crop very popular in Up Country vegetable cultivation system due to its lower cost of production. Therefore present study was conducted to identify suitability of cabbage to intercrop with chilli under water scared conditions. Field experiment was conducted in 2016 yala season in research field of Agriculture Research Station, Rahangala (IU3d) and farmer field trial conducted in 2017 yala season with objective of determining optimum yield and return of the intercropping system in relation to plant spacing and time of transplanting. 60 × 60 cm plant spacing for both crops has given highest yield for chilli (3.2 and 2.9 t/ha) and cabbage (70.7 and 71.9 t/ha) in both seasons. Transplanting cabbage two weeks after chilli is the best schedule for transplanting two crops. Combination of these plant spacing and time of transplanting recorded high yield, high Land Equivalent Ratio and the highest Cost Equivalent yield compared to monocrops.

Keywords: Chilli, Intercropping, LER