Morphological and yield performance of chinese and rangoon ginger (zingiber officinale roscoe) accessions cultivated as intercrops under coconut cultivation in the low country intermediate zone of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) belongs to the family Zingiberaceae. Chinese, Rangoon and Local are the commonly cultivated ginger types in Sri Lanka. Local ginger is rich in fiber, uses in Indigenous and Ayurveda medicinal purposes, and amount of yield is comparatively low. Chinese and Rangoon are moderately in pungency, amount of yield is comparatively high and use in beverage industry likes for production of ginger beer and for culinary purposes also. Ginger can be grown either as a mono-crop or inter-crop under coconut plantation. This research was carried out at Inter-cropping and Betel Research Station, Narammala where the area belongs to Kurunegala district is under the coconut triangle. Coconut plants are generally spaced in 26 ft x 26 ft, hence 75% of area under the coconut plants are remaining unproductively. Underutilized area is high when the age of the coconut plants is below 5 years and over 20 years. Climatic conditions in Kurunegala district is more favourable for ginger cultivation. After the three years field experiment, the highest fresh yield of rhizome per clump for Chinese ginger accessions was given by the accession of G33 (949.2 g/clump) in Low Country Intermediate Zone under coconut cultivation. The highest fresh yield of rhizome per clump for Rangoon ginger accessions was given by the accession of G28 (754.2 g/clump) in low country Intermediate zone under coconut cultivation. The G28 and G33 accessions can be used to cultivate under coconut plantation as an intercrop to increase the productivity of coconut lands.