Study on Papaya Based Intercropping and Its Economics at Farmer's Field in West Bengal, India

A survey was carried out to evaluate different papaya based intercrops as well as their benefit cost ratio at farmer's field in North 24 Paraganas and Nadia District in West Bengal during 2007-2008. It was found that papaya based intercropping was accepted by the farmers due to secondary source of income from papaya. Vegetables such as chilli, brinjal, colocasia, elephant foot yam, bottle gourd and pumpkin as intercrops were observed in papaya field in West Bengal condition. From the results of survey from 20 orchards of papaya, it was clear that most of the farmers (about 79%) practised in papaya-chilli intercrops followed by papaya-brinjal in first year i. e. in early vegetative stage. The papaya plants are retained up to second year to get yield and the tall papaya plants (5-7 m height) are then used as pole for making suitable structure/mancha to raise bottle gourd. During second year, they planted pumpkin, colocasia and elephant foot yam in late fruiting phases. Comparative study of benefit cost ratio per hectare of sole (pure) crop (1.82) and papaya based intercrops (2.1) was also calculated on the basis of farmer's observations. It was also found that the papaya plants were infested with mosaic virus when intercropped with chilli and brinjal.