A field experiment was conducted during 1998/99 and 1999/2000 to evaluate the performance of diversified rice-based relay cropping systems at zero and conventional tillage under strip plantation on a sandy clay loam soil in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The treatments comprised rice/fallow and rice intercropped with wheat, barley, forage oats, gram [ Cicer arietinum], lentil, linseed, fenugreek, sunflower, rape, forage maize and Egyptian clover [ Trifolium alexandrinum]. All rice-based relay cropping were more productive and economically viable than rice/fallow. However, rice intercropped with grain or forage legumes (such as fenugreek, gram, lentil and Egyptian clover) were more superior to that intercropped with non-legumes (such as wheat, barley, forage oats, rape, sunflower and forage maize) in terms of sustainability, total rice grain yield equivalent (TRGYE) and net field benefits under both zero and conventional tillage. Rice/fenugreek relay cropping recorded the highest TRGYEs of 7.48 and 9.27 t/ha and net monetary gains of Rs. 40 620 and 45 120/ha under zero and conventional tillage, respectively.
