Intercropping baby corn and tomato may be an option to improve on-farm income on the resource-poor small
farms. An experiment was conducted to examine the effect of tomato intercrop on various traits of baby corn, and
to determine the appropriate combination from the different varieties of the two crops for maximizing performance
and profitability. A replicated field study was conducted using four baby corn and two tomato cultivars at Rampur,
Nepal in 2007. There were two open-pollinated (‘Arun-2’ and ‘Rampur Composite’) and two hybrid (‘Bioseed
9681’ and ‘JK Puja’) corn varieties. The tomato cultivars were ‘BSS-418’ and ‘Umi’ hybrids. The different
combinations of corn and tomato varied in total crop productivity from the intercropping system. The combination
of BSS 418 tomato with Arun-2 and Bioseed 9681 corn cultivars produced equal but higher total yield than the
other mixtures. The average benefit cost ratio for intercrops vs. sole crops was 1.9:1. Individually, the benefit cost
ratios were 3.0:1 and 1.4:1 for the sole tomato and corn, respectively. The land equivalent ratio was 1.78 for baby
corn-tomato intercropping. The findings provide new information on the understanding of baby corn and tomato
intercropping and its additional profitability over the sole crops.
K.P. Upadhyay, M.D. Sharma, S.M. Shakya, G. Ortiz-Ferrara, T.P. Tiwari, R. C. Sharma. (2010) Performance and profitability study of baby corn and tomato intercropping, , Volume-47, Issue-3.
