COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE OF ASSOCIATED FORAGE CROPS GROWN IN DIFFERENT FORAGE SORGHUM-LEGUME INTERCROPPING SYSTEMS

The competitive response of associated forage crops grown in different forage sorghum-based legume intercropping systems in different geometrical arrangements was executed at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-Pakistan, on a sandy-clay loam soil for two consecutive years. The planting geometry encompassed; 30 cm spaced single rows, 30 x 30 cm cross planting with intercrops, 45 cm spaced double row strips and 75 cm spaced four-row strips, while the intercropping systems were sorghum alone, sorghum + mungbean, sorghum + clusterbean, sorghum + cowpea and sorghum + sesbania. In different intercropping systems, forage sorghum appeared to be the dominant crop as indicated by its higher values of relative crowding coefficient, competitive ratio and positive sign of the aggressivity. It reflects that forage sorghum grown in association with forage legumes (mungbean, clusterbean, cowpea and sesbania) utilized the resources more aggressively which exhibited the dominated behaviour of forage legume crops. Among the forage intercrops, cowpea proved to be more competitive than the other legume intercrops understudy at all planting patterns. Thus, it is suggested that