INTER CROPPING

GROUP 2
 INTERCROPPING
Intercropping is the practice of growing two or more crops in proximity.
The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a
given piece of land by making use of resources that would otherwise not be
utilized by a single crop. In other words, intercropping is the cultivation of
two or more crops simultaneously on the same field.
 TYPES OF INTERCROPPING

• While planting different species together, farmers should consider their

density, architecture, required period for maturing, irrigation, sunlight, and
nutrient needs. Intercropping involves a certain arrangement of plants that
gives the basis for its classification. Thus, intercropping types fall into the
row, strip, relay, temporal, mixed, guard, alley, trap, repellant, and push-
pull cropping among others.
 1. ROW CROPPING

• As the name suggests, plants are arranged in rows in this case. A

common and beneficial combination is cereals with legumes like
corn and beans. Row ratios may vary, including either single or
multiple rows. A study recommends four maize rows with six
soybean ones

• The benefits of row cropping here include additional nitrogen

fixation by legumes in symbiosis with the bacteria of the
Rhizobium genus.
 2. STRIP INTERCROPPING

• What does it imply and what is the purpose

of strip cropping? The practice is similar to
row cropping, but the sections of land are
wide enough to facilitate machine
operations and to enable independent
cultivations. A popular pattern of strip
cropping in the U.S. is growing wheat, corn,
and soybeans alternatively, six rows each.
 3. ALLEY CROPPING
The alley cropping system suggests growing crops in-
between trees, bushes, or hedges forming alleys. The
aspects of alley cropping are as follows. Higher plants
protect the lower ones from winds and shelter from extra
sunlight as well as prevent soil erosion with their vigorous
root systems.

Examples:
A producer could take open cropland or a field with windbreaks
and plant trees in rows to create an alley cropping system. During
this period, the producer would get income from both the alley
crop and the tree crop. In time, the trees will grow larger and the
system could be used for silvopasture.
4. RELAY CROPPING
• Farmers practicing this technique plant one or
two more species at the same piece of land
but at different times, after one crop has
flowered. Relay intercropping reduces
temporal overlap in harvesting different
species, but the second crop must be tolerant
of the shade of the first one. Examples of the
relay cropping system are cotton and corn or
chickpea and upland rice.
5. TEMPORAL CROPPING
• In this intercropping method,
combined plants require different
maturing time. When the fast-
growing plant is harvested, the
slow-growing one has more space
to develop.
6. MIXED CROPPING
• The intercropping practice
involves sowing different species
(two or more) in one terrain with
no distinct arrangement in rows or
in the same rows. In this case, the
time to sow and harvest coincides.
Mixed cropping gives additional
protection to the primary culture
from winds, frosts, droughts, and
other severe weather conditions.
 7. CROP CROPPING
• As the name hints, the intercropping technique aids in trapping
pests to protect the main culture. Popular examples of trapping
plants are mustard, marigold, among others. The basic idea is to
attract insects or fungi to the sacrificial secondary crops, thus
protecting the cash one.
• Blue hubbard squash is reported to be an efficient remedy from
squash bugs, squash vine borers, spotted and striped cucumber
beetles.
• Trap intercropping allows saving on pesticides with no
chemical application at all or partial treatment of trapping areas.
However, possible disadvantages of intercropping, in this case,
include developing resistance to insecticides or uncontrolled
pest nurseries.
8. GUARD CROPPING

• Guard crops are thorny or hardy

plants growing around the cash
crops or along the field edges.
Crop guards are used as barriers
to protect the main species from
winds or invasions. For this
reason, sorghum is grown
around cotton or safflower
around chickpea.
 9. REPELLANT INTERCROPPING

• While applying this intercropping

method, farmers utilize pest-repellant
plants as a sustainable pest-
management technique. It relies on the
repellant effect of certain species, thus
protecting the cash crop. The repellant
deters insects from their host plant like
in the case of planting leeks to protect
beans from bean flies.
10. PUSH-PULL CROPPING
• The intercropping practice combines both
trap and repellent plants for the sake of
the cash crop. While trap species attract
(or pull) pests, repellant ones push them
away. A pattern to illustrate this technique
is growing Napier grass (to pull) and
Desmodium legume (to push) in order to
protect corn from stem boring corn
larvae.
RULES TO FOLLOW IN INTERCROPPING

• The basic idea in proper companion matches is to make them benefit from each other, not compete.
The intercropping practice is based on principles and rules with respect to different plant families,
architecture, time of maturing, growth habits (sunlight and water needs in particular).
• Combine high growing and wide growing species.
• Match shallow-rooted plants with deep-rooted ones.
• Select species with similar water needs (e.g. cabbage demanding abundant irrigation must not grow
together with companions requiring scarce water supply).
• Match plants that do not compete for sunlight (one should be able to develop in the shade of the
other).
 RULES TO FOLLOW IN INTERCROPPING

Avoid grouping crops of the same family to mitigate pest invasions. For this reason,
you must not plant potatoes with eggplants or tomatoes; however, they go well with
beetroots. On the contrary, combinations of different families in intercropping
eliminate infestation. Thus, matches of solanaceous plants with corn reduce the
movement of Colorado potato beetles
(host vs. non-host crops).
Mind possible disease outbreaks due to close interaction in intercropping. Note that
pests not only damage crops physically by eating but bear viruses critical for
specific vegetation.
 DENSITY
• To optimize plant density, the seeding rate of each crop in the mixture is adjusted below
its full rate. If full rates of each crop were planted, neither would yield well because of
intense overcrowding. By reducing the seeding rates of each, the crops have a chance to
yield well within the mixture. The challenge comes in knowing how much to reduce the
seeding rates. For example, if you are planning to grow corn and cowpeas and you want
mostly peas and only a little corn, it would be easy to achieve this. The corn-seeding rate
would be drastically cut (by 80% or more) and the pea rate would be near normal. The
field should produce near top yields of peas even from the lower planting rate and offer
the advantage of corn plants for the pea vines to run on. If you wanted equal yields from
both peas and corn, then the seeding rates would be adjusted to produce those equal
yields.
 MATURITY DATES

• Planting intercrops that feature staggered maturity dates or development periods takes advantage
of variations in peak resource demand for nutrients, water and sunlight. Having one crop mature
before its companion crop lessens the competition between the two crops. An aggressive climbing
bean may pull down corn or sorghum growing with it and lower the grain yield. Timing the
planting of the aggressive bean may fix the problem if the corn can be harvested before the bean
begins to climb. A common practice in the old southern US cotton culture was to plant velvet
beans or cowpeas into standing corn at last corn cultivation. The corn was planted on wide 40-inch
rows at a low plant population allowing enough sunlight to reach the peas or beans. The corn was
close enough to maturity that the young legumes did not compete. When the corn was mature, the
beans or peas had corn stalks to climb on. The end result was corn and beans that would be hand
harvested together in the fall.
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
OF INTERCROPPING
PROS OF INTERCROPPING
• Potential increased crop yields per unit area.
• Improved soil fertility by leguminous intercrops e.g. nitrogen fixing.
• Reduced soil erosion.
• Lowered soil surface evaporation.
• Reduced weed infestation (Mthembu et al., 2018: 363).
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
INTERCROPPING

CONS OF INTERCROPPING
• Intercropping is not always suited to a mechanized farming system.
• Time consuming: It requires more attention and thus increased intensive, expert management.
• There is reduced efficiency in planting, weeding and harvesting which may add to the labor
costs of these operations.
• Good planning is very important and includes careful cultivar selection, proper spacing etc.
The biggest challenge to adopting intercropping systems is the advance planning of planting,
cultivation, fertilization, spraying and harvesting of more than one crop in the same field.
 ADOPTING INTERCROPPING TO YOUR
FARM
• Intercropping has been important in the US and other countries and continues to be an important
practice in developing nations. In traditional systems, intercropping evolved through many centuries of
trial and error. To have persisted, intercropping had to have merit biologically, environmentally,
economically, and sociologically. Any agriculture practice must provide advantages over other available
options in the eyes of the practitioner to gain acceptance. Many of the impediments to adoption of new
strategies or practices of diversification are sociological and financial rather than technological.
• Farmers have generally regarded intercropping as a technique that reduces risks in crop production; if
one member of an intercrop fails, the other survives and compensates in yield to some extent, allowing
the farmer an acceptable harvest. Pest levels are often lowered in intercrops, as the diversity of plants
hampers movement of certain pest insects and in some cases encourages beneficial insect populations.
 REFERENCE
• https://eos.com/blog/intercropping/