A NEW APPROACH OF CANOPY ARCHITECTURE IN ASSESSING COMPLEMENTARITY OF INTERCROPS

A 2-year field study conducted during the rainy (kharif) seasons of 1988 and 1989 on sunflower (Hellanthus annuus L.)-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] intercropping system at Bangalore revealed the advantages of intercropping in terms of higher biomass, oil yield, gross income and land equivalent ratio, These advantages were substantiated through a new approach canopy architecture, which involved the parameters like total leaf area/plant, leaf-area distribution, vertical canopy area, plant height, basal stem height without leaves, per cent canopy overlapping, light interception curves and the area of the canopy surface exposed to the sun.