Performance of the maize cultivars intercropped with legumes and non-legumes under midhills of Nepal

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate suitable maize cultivars and intercrops combination for sustaining soil fertility and improving farm income of resource poor marginal farmers of Nepal in 2012 at Jugedi, Chitwan, Nepal. The experiment was conducted in the form of two factorial strip plot design with three replications. Treatment of the experiment included combinations of three maize varieties Arun-2 (90 DAS), Manakamana-1 (125 DAS) and Posilo Makai-1 (145 DAS) with four intercrops namely Black gram (79 DAS), Green gram (60 DAS), Cowpea (77 DAS) and Millet (130 DAS). Results indicated that different combinations of legume and non-legume affected the yield and other characters of both maize and intercrops. Intercropping on early duration maize resulted in low yield of maize but higher intercrop yield whereas intercropping in long duration maize resulted in higher yield of maize but lower intercrop yield.