INTERCROPPING OF WINTER VEGETABLES WITH BANANA IN KHAGRACHARI HILL DISTRICT OF BANGLADESH

During the 2017-2018 season, an experiment was conducted in Khagrachari hill tracts of Chattogram, Bangladesh to determine the yield and profitability of bananas for winter crops. The winter vegetables intercropped with bananas were sweet gourd, bitter gourd, red amaranth and radish. Sole cultivation of bananas was taken as control. Significant effects of intercrops were found in yield contributing characters i.e., number of fingers/hands and a total number of fingers/bunches on a banana. Sole banana also gave the highest yield which was 36.50t/ha and the lowest yield was given by banana intercropped with radish which was 28.95t/ha. But the economic analysis showed that all the treatments observed the maximum economic return compared to the control. Banana intercropped with bitter gourd gave the highest gross return with a Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) of 3.22. BCR of banana intercropped with red amaranth, banana intercropped with sweet gourd, and banana intercropped with radish was 2.77, 2.69, and 2.66 respectively. Sole banana has the lowest BCR of 2.35.