Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to Advantages of Intercropping by Centurion University.ppt
Similar to Advantages of Intercropping by Centurion University.ppt (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Advantages of Intercropping by Centurion University.ppt
- 1. Requirements for successful intercropping • The time of peak nutrient demands of component crops should not overleap. Eg. Maize (50DAS) + green gram (35 DAS) • Competition for light should be minimum among the component crops. • Complementary should exist between the component crops. They should not be competitive. • The differences in maturity of component crops should be at least 30 days.
- 2. • The subsidiary crop should be of shorter duration and of faster growing habits to utilize the early slow growing period of main crop and they must be harvested when main crop starts growing viz. faster sesamum, urd or mung grown with red gram complete their life cycle by September, the period since when red gram picks up branching and attains rapid growth. Autumn planted sugarcane remains dormant after germination until February during which potato, berseem, lucerne, mustard, etc. could be taken successfully as companion intercrops. • The component crops should have similar agronomic practices.
- 3. • Erect growing crops should be intercropped with cover crops like pulses so that the soil erosion and weed population could be reduced or checked. This also helps in reducing evaporation loss of water from soil surface. • The component crops should have different root depths so that they do not compete for nutrients, water and root respiration among them.
- 4. • A standard plant population of main crop should be maintained whereas that of subsidiary crops the plant population could be increased or decreased as per demand of the situation. • Component crops of similar pest and disease pathogens and parasite infestations should not be chosen. • The planting method and management should be simple, less time taking, less cumbersome, economical and profitable so that it may have wider adoptability.
- 5. Advantage of Intercropping • Intercropping gives additional yield and income/unit area than sole cropping. • It acts as an insurance against failure of crops. • Inter-crops maintain the soil fertility. • Intercropping reduces the soil runoff. • It controls weeds. • Intercrops provide shade and support to the other crop. • Inter cropping system utilizes resources efficiently (land, light, nutrient, water) and combined productivity is increased. • Intercropping with cash crops is highly profitable. • It helps to avoid inter-crop competition and higher number of crop plants are grown per unit area. • Assures better cash flow.
- 6. Disadvantages of intercropping • Yield may decrease as the crops differ in their competitive abilities (if complementarity is not observed). • Management of intercrops having different cultural practices seems to be difficult task. • Improved implements cannot be used efficiently. • Higher amount of fertilizer or irrigation water cannot be utilized properly as the component crops vary in their response of these resources. • Harvesting is difficult and to some extent laborious.