Padma, E.Ramanandam, G.Ravindra Kumar, K.Chalapathi Rao, N.B.V.Maheswarappa, H.P.2017-02-232017-02-232016Green Farming Vol. 7 (6) : 1431-1435 ; November-December, 2016http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/6877Atrial was conducted at Horticultural Research Station, Ambajipeta during 2008-12 with cocoa, banana, pineapple, elephant foot yam and heliconia as intercrops in coconut. The mean data of four years revealed that nut yield recorded in coconut under cropping system was117.3 per palm whereas under monocrop it was 96.5 nuts per palm .With respect to intercrops, cocoa recorded yield of 2.0 kg dry beans/tree, banana 22.7 kg/plant, pineapple 0.9 kg/plant, elephant foot yam yielded corm of weight 2.8 kg/plant and Heliconia 12 spikes/plant. With respect to biomass production, a total quantity of 34.5 t/ha/year on fresh weight basis collected from the bio-system (7.6 tonnes from coconut,15.0 tonnes from cocoa ,6.0 tonnes from banana , 3.6 tonnes from Pineapple, 1.3 tonnes from elephant foot yam and 1.0 ton from heliconia) which was used for production of vermicompost. The total quantity of vermicompost obtained was 20.11 t/ha/yr with vermicompost recovery of 58 %. There was an increase in the soil organic matter content from 0.99 % to 1.2 %, soil organic carbon content from 0.5 % to 0.7 % , nitrogen from 288 kg/ha to 344 kg/ha, phosphorus from 20.5 kg/ha to 24.5 kg/ha and potassium from 123.76 kg/ha to 138.14 kg/ha with coconut-based cropping system. The microbial population of bacteria, actinomycetes, Trichoderma, Phosphorus solubilising bacteria (PSB) count was high in the coconut based cropping system. Earthworm count and soil moisture were also higher in coconut based cropping system whereas soil temperatures were found lower in coconut based cropping system compared to monocrop. The economic analysis revealed that the highest net returns were registered in coconut based cropping system compared to coconut monocrop.enbiomassCBCSCoconutCropping systemeconomicsintercropsvermicompostYield attributesArticle