Intercropping Broccoli with Onion and Garlic for Enhanced Yield, Quality and System Profitability in the Eastern Himalayan Foothills Region

A field experiment was conducted over two rabi seasons of year 2019–2021 (October, 2019–February, 2020 and October, 2020 to February, 2021) at instructional farm of Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Pundibari West Bengal to study the intercropping effect on broccoli with onion and garlic to enhance the yield, quality and system profitability in the Eastern Himalayan Foothills Regions using a randomized block design with seven treatments, including sole and intercropping systems in varying proportions viz; T1-Sole broccoli. T2-Sole onion T3-Sole garlic T4-Broccoli+onion (1:1) T5- Broccoli+onion (1:2) T6-Broccoli+garlic (1:1) T7-Broccoli+garlic (1:2). During this field experimentation, key parameters assessed included growth, yield, quality, competitive functions, and economic returns. The pooled results during the experiment indicated that intercropping has significantly affected all the observed parameters viz; growth, yield, and quality parameters of broccoli. Among all the intercropping combinations, broccoli+onion (1:1) recorded the maximum growth parameters with a yield of 16.96 t ha-1. The highest LER (1.50) and RCC (16.18) were observed in broccoli+garlic (1:2) intercropping combination. However, production economics suggested broccoli+onion in 1:2 proportion recorded the maximum B:C ratio (3.99). The findings suggest that the strategic intercropping of broccoli onion and garlic offers a sustainable approach to improve productivity and profitability in low-input hill farming systems.