A field experiment was conducted from kharif 2008 to kharif 2010 on different sites at research farm of maize research station, Khedbrahma, S. D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar (North Gujarat) under arid and semi-arid agro climatic zone (AES-1) . The experiment was laid out in randomization block design with eleven treatments viz., T1 : cotton + green gram, T2 : cotton + black gram, T3 : cotton + pigeon pea, T4 : cotton + maize , T5 : cotton + soyabean, T6 : cotton sole 120 cm., T7 : green gram sole 45 cm., T8 : black gram sole 45 cm., T9 : pigeon pea sole 90 cm., T10 :maize sole 45 cm., T11 : soybean sole 45 cm were tried out in cotton based intercropping system. Seed yield and stalk / straw yield were converted into cotton equivalent yield (CEY) on the basis of existing market prices of all the crops in pooled basis. Land equivalent ratio (LER) was also computed. On the basis of three years pooled data, cotton sown at 120 x 30 cm and black gram taken as a inter crop in 1: 1 row ratio gave significantly higher cotton equivalent yield of 983 kg ha-1 which was 50.08 % higher than sole cotton sown at 120 x 30 cm. All the intercropping systems showed superiority to sole cropping in total productivity, as evident by cotton equivalent yield. The higher equivalent yield dictated higher biomass production and efficient use of available growth resources under intercropping the sole cropping. Pooled economic evaluation in terms of monetary return showed that all the intercropping systems gave higher gross and net returns than sole cropping of all component crop as intercropping is productive and remunerative system of cultivation under rainfed condition. However, among the cropping systems, cotton (120 x 30 cm) + black gram as intercrop recorded higher gross return of ` 41040 ha-1, net return of ` 29520 ha-1 with higher value of benefit cost ratio (3.56) & land equivalent ratio (1.43) .