The biggest challenge for the developing nations like India is to meet the requirements of food supply for continuous growing population and ensuring nutritional security. Despite the achievement of green and other like revolutions, India still faces problem of protein and energy malnutrition which is a serious issue to be dealt with. Compared to our traditional rice and wheat farming system, the status of expanding oilseeds and pulses offers a limited scope due to less productivity, low returns, higher insect & pest infestation and other associated risks involved. Since, the availability of land is a major constraint in Indian agriculture, therefore possibility of intensification of crops gives a viable option to improve the land use efficiency and increase profitability. Mustard and black gram are the major rabi season crops having seasonal and rhizospheric compatibility and therefore chickpea +mustard is a prominent intercropping system in irrigated areas of northern India. However, a little work has been done on chickpea+ mustard intercropping and information related to their comparative performance, competition relations and sustainability of the system coupled with beneficial effect of integrated use of various inorganic and organic nutrients is lacking, which might be helpful in enhancing the yield of the component crops. Keeping the foregoing facts in view, an experiment was conducted to find out the suitability of mustard as intercrop with chickpea, their appropriate row arrangement and nutrient doses for component crops. An investigation entitled “Population Compatibility and Nutrient Management Studies in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) +Mustard (Brassica juncea L.) Intercropping System” was carried out at “Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology”, Meerut (U.P.) during rabi season of 2017-18. Recommended dose of fertilizer for chickpea and mustard were 100 kg DAP +20kg S ha-1 & 120 kg N +40 kg P2O5+20 kg S. Chickpea seeds were inoculated with Rhizobium and mustard seeds with Azotobacter while PSB was soil applied. Chickpea and mustard seeds were sown manually in line at a depth of 8 and 4 cm with a spacing of 30 X 15 cm in chickpea while in case of mustard the spacing varied according to intercropping situations. The results revealed that among different intercropping treatments, highest grain yield, straw yield & total nutrient uptake in mustard was recorded in chickpea+ mustard 3:1 additive series while oil content was maximum recorded in chickpea +mustard 4:1 replacement series. Further, among different nutrient management options, application of 150% RDF in mustard (as per plant population) inoculated with Azotobacter + 100% RDF in chickpea inoculated with Rhizobium along with soil application of PSB resulted in highest yields, harvest index, oil content and total nutrient uptake while lowest was recorded with the application of recommended dose of fertilizer to the component crops.

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