PERFORMANCE OF WINTER VEGETABLES GROWN UNDER COCONUT- LEMON BASED MULTISTRATA AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM (PRODUCTIVIDAD INVERNAL DE VEGETALES CULTIVADO EN SISTEMAS AGROFORESTALES MULTIESTRATO BASADOS EN COCOTERO-LIMÓN)

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of seven winter vegetables under coconut-lemon based multistrata system in Bangladesh Agricultural University from October 2005 to April 2006. Tomato, chilli, carrot, onion, garlic, turnip and french bean were the tested vegetables under two treatments namely multistrata system T1 (Lemon + Coconut based, 35-50% reduced Photosynthetic Active Radiation (PAR)) and full sunlight condition T0 (100% PAR). There were significant variations in respect of plant height of winter vegetables (except chilli and turnip) under shade condition. On the other hand, significantly highest yield per plot and yield per hectare were observed when plant grown under full sunlight condition. Moreover, the economic analysis showed that among the seven vegetables carrot gave the highest economic return (108,937 Tk./ha) followed by chilli (95295 Tk./ha) under multristrata (Lemon + Coconut) agroforestry system. Therefore, production of winter vegetables especially carrot and chilli under multistrata agroforestry systems are economically profitable than sole production systems.