In Bangladesh, grass pea is generally grown as relay crop in the monsoon rice field but the farmers of Sylhet region are not habituated to grow grass pea as relay crop. Moreover, most of the lands remain fallow during rabi season (winter period) after harvest of monsoon rice due to shortage of soil moisture and lack of irrigation facilities. In this endeavor, for the increasing productivity of crop through the inclusion of grass pea in the rice based cropping system, an experiment was conducted in two locations of Sylhet areas during 2011-12 & 2012-13 for the better adaptation of grass pea through timely sowing and best utilization of existing residual soil moisture. The treatments comprises of T₁: T. aman rice (var. BRRI dhan 33) as sole, T₂: relay of grass pea var. BARI Khesari-1 with T. aman rice; T₃: relay of grass pea var. BARI Khesari-2 with T. aman rice; T₄: BARI Khesari-1 as sole and T₅: BARI Khesari-2 as sole in the present study. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three dispersed replications at two different locations. Results revealed that higher rice equivalent yields were recorded at both locations from the two varieties of grass pea as relayed with T. aman rice. The higher economic benefit such as gross return (US$ 1428-1463 ha^-1), net return (US$ 880-915 ha^-1) and BCR (2.6-2.67) was recorded from relay cropping of grass pea in each location. Through the inclusion of grass pea as relay crop in the rice based cropping system, a vast area of fallow lands of Sylhet region in Bangladesh can be brought under cultivation which also be improved soil health and increased the productivity of crop.

Productivity, Relay Cropping, Grass Pea, Rice Equivalent Yield, Economic Benefit, Fallow Land Utilization