This document discusses vegetable-based cropping systems. It begins with definitions of cropping system and cropping pattern. The basic principles of cropping systems are to choose crops that complement each other and utilize resources efficiently. Objectives are efficient resource utilization and maintaining stable production. Benefits include maintaining soil fertility and controlling pests. Cropping systems are classified based on whether one or multiple crops are grown, including sole cropping, multiple cropping, intercropping, mixed cropping, ratoon cropping, and crop rotation. Advantages and disadvantages of each system are provided. Factors that influence the selection of a cropping system are also discussed.

1. K R CCOLLEGE OF HORTICULTURE, ARABHAVI
Vegetable Based Cropping Systems
Presented by
Basavaraj S Panjagal
Ph.D Research Scholar
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2. Introduction
❑ Cropping system
Cropping system refers to the principles and practices of cropping pattern
followed on a farm and their interaction with farm resources, technology, other
farm enterprises, aerial and edaphic environment to suit the regional or national
or global needs and production strategy.
➢ A cropping system refers to a combination of crops in time and space.
❑ Cropping pattern:
The yearly sequenceand spatial arrangementof cropsand fallow
onagivenarea.
➢ Cropping system comprises all components required for the production of a
particular crop and the interrelationships between them and environment.
In the cropping systems, sometimes a number of crops are grown together or
they are grown separatelyatshort intervals in thesame field.
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3. Basic Principles of cropping system
➢Choose crops that complement each other
➢Choose crops and a cropping rotation which
utilize available resources efficiently
➢Choose crops and a cropping that maintain and
enhance soil fertility
➢Choose crops which have a diversity of growth cycle
➢Choose a diverse species of crops
➢Keep the soil covered
➢Strategically plan and modify the cropping system
as needed
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4. Objectives of cropping system
❑ efficient utilization of all resources viz. land, water, and solar
radiation.
❑ maintaining stability in production and
❑ obtaining higher net returns.
• The efficiency is measured by the quantity of
produce obtained per unit resource in a unit time
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5. Benefits of Cropping System
❑Maintain and enhance soil fertility
❑Enhance crop growth
❑Minimize spread of disease
❑Control weeds
❑Inhibit insect and pest growth
❑Increase soil cover
❑Reduce risk for crop failure
❑Use resources more efficiently
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6. Classification of cropping system
Depending on the resources and technology available, different types of
cropping systems are adopted on farms, which are as below
1. Sole cropping (monoculture)
2. Intensive cropping
A. Multiplecropping
a. Sequential cropping, b. Double cropping
c. Triple cropping d. Quadruple cropping
e. Relay cropping
B. Intercropping-
a. Row intercropping b. Mixed Intercropping c. Stripe inter cropping
d. Parallel inter cropping e. companion cropping f. Multistoreyed/ multitier
g. Synergetic cropping
C. mixed cropping
3.Ratoon cropping
4. Crop rotation 6
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7. 1. Monoculture
One crop is grown on a piece of land year after year.
or
Repetitive growing of the same sole crop in the same land.
➢ Single cropping or Mono-cropping or Sole culture.
➢ The cropping intensity is always 100%.
➢ Farmers use monoculture in high value crops
e.g. growing of two crops of tomato on the same piece of land
every year.
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8. Advantage
✓Easy maintenance
✓Uniform and at a time harvesting
Disadvantage
➢it encourages pests, diseases and weeds
➢it can reduce the soil fertility and damage the
soil structure.
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9. 2. Intensive cropping:
Growing number of crops on the same piece of land during the given
period of time.
Need for intensive cropping
❖ Cropping systems has to be evolved based on climate, soil and
water availability for efficient use of available natural resources.
❖ The increase in population has put pressure on land to increase
productivity per unit area, unit time and for unit resource used.
Cropping Intensity :
Number of crops cultivated in a piece of land per annum is cropping
intensity.
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10. A. Multiple cropping
• In this system, more than two crops are cultivated in a year in
succession on the same field.
• The main aim is to make effective use of modern farm
technologies and farm inputs with minimum cost of cultivation and
without affecting the fertility of land.
• In multiple cropping systems, the possibility of more efficient use
of resources like sunlight, nutrients and water is higher leading to
increased biological diversity and higher production stability.
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11. Types of Multiple cropping
a) Sequential cropping:
➢ It is growing of two or more crops in quick succession on the same piece
of land in a farming year.
➢ The succeeding crop is planted after the preceding crop has been
harvested in which crop intensification is only in the time dimension.
➢ The sowing of succeeding crop and harvesting of the preceding crop may
be done simultaneously or in a quick succession
e.g., soon after harvesting of okra, potato is sown or after digging of potato,
chilli is planted.
✓ Non-overlapping crop because of no overlapping between two or more
crops.
The basic advantage is there is no intercrop competition and growers
manage only one crop at a time in the same field.
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12. b) Double cropping.:
It refers to growing of two crops a year in sequence on the same piece of
land
e.g.,growing of brinjal (July-Dec) followed by onion (Jan-May).
c) Triple cropping:
It refers to growing of three crops a year in sequence on the same piece of
land.
e.g., growing of cucumber (June-Sept) followed by cauliflower (Oct-Jan)
and watermelon (Feb-May).
d) Quadruple cropping:
It refers to growing of four crops a year in sequence on the same piece of
land. In this system very intensive farming practices are carried out
Eg, growing of okra (July-Sept) followed by early cauliflower (Sept-Dec)
followed by French bean (Dec-March) followed by round melon
(April-July).
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13. e) Relay cropping.
❑ In a relay cropping system, planting of succeeding crop is done before
the harvest of preceding crop.
❑ Planting of succeeding crop may be done before or after flowering,
before or after attainment of reproductive stage, completion of active
life cycle, senescence of leaves or attainment of physiological maturity.
❑ The main advantage of relay cropping is that, there is no need of land
preparation for sowing/planting thereby reducing cost of cultivation.
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14. Examples of relay cropping followed in west Bengal
1. Potato- pumpkin (potato is harvested in March and pumpkin
seeds are sown in last week of January. After harvesting of
potato, pumpkin is continued upto August).
2. Early cauliflower- pumpkin (Cauliflower seedlings are
transplanted in August and harvested in november. Pumpkin seeds
are sown in October in the standing crop of cauliflower and
continued up to March).
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15. Merits of multiple cropping
• Under multiple cropping, available resources (land, water, light,
manpower, machinery and finance) can be utilized efficiently
throughout the year.
• Multiple cropping has the capacity of generate employment for
unskilled rural people throughout the year.
• It results in increase in the total outcome per unit area and per unit
time.
• With considerable addition of organic matter an increase in the soil
fertility and improvement in the physical properties of soil has been
seen.
• Protection from soil erosion.
• Multiple cropping helps to control the weed population.
• Utmost utilization of soil fertility.
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16. Demerits of multiple cropping
• Assured irrigation facilities are required.
• Quick growing crops/varieties can only be utilized.
• Adoption of modern technology is important for the success of
multiple cropping systems which is generally not available with the
farmers.
• More input is needed to grow the crops.
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17. B. Intercropping
• Intercropping is the growing of two or more dissimilar crops
simultaneously on the same piece of land.
• The recommended optimum plant population of the base crop is suitably
combined with appropriate additional plant density of the associated crop.
• Intercropping is a very important cultural practice in disease and pest
management and is based on the principle of reducing insect pests and
diseases by increasing diversity of ecosystem.
• In vegetables, for successful intercropping system in a geographical
location, effective cultural practices must be determined with respect to
plant population.
• Intercropping can improve the crop productivity due to increased plant
efficiency for utilization of sunlight with an adequate spatial distribution of
various plant architectures.
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18. a) Row intercropping:
Growing two or more crops simultaneously where one or
more crops are planted in rows. Often simply referred to as
intercropping.
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19. b) Mixed intercropping:
Growing two or more crops
simultaneously with no distinct
row arrangement. Also referred to
as mixed cropping.
c) Strip intercropping:
Growing two or more crops
simultaneously in strips wide enough to
permit independent cultivation but
narrow enough for the crops to interact
Alternating 15-inch rows of radish and oats.
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21. f) Multi storeyed/multitier cropping :
▪ As the name indicates, under this system two or more crops of different
heights grown simultaneously on a certain piece of land in any certain period.
▪ Multistoreyed/ multitier cropping system aimed at better use of the production
components such as soil, water, air, space, radiation and other inputs on
sustainable basis.
– Sugarcane + Okra + Onion
– Cotton + Radish + Cluster bean + Beet root
– Cotton + Radish + Beetroot + Coriander
g) Synergetic cropping:
In such type of cropping system, the yield of one crop has the synergetic effect on second
crop therefore both the crops produce higher yield than when they grown as a single
crop on unit area basis.
e.g., Sugarcane + Potato
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22. d) Parallel intercropping:
▪ Under such cropping system both crops have different growth habit but
zero competitiveness. e.g., Cowpea + Sweet corn
▪ In this intercropping system the peak nutrient demand period for cowpea
is around 30-35 days after sowing whereas for sweet corn it is about 45-
50 days after sowing.
e) Companion Cropping.:
➢ In this cropping system the production of both the intercrops is equal
to the production of both the crops grown individually.
➢ e.g., Potato/onion + Sugarcane.
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23. Merits of intercropping
➢ It reduces the risk of total crop failure due to crop diversification.
➢ There is best utilization of interspace available between two rows of
main crop.
➢ Efficient utilization of available resources.
➢ Increases gross returns from per unit area.
➢ Greater stability of yield over the seasons.
➢ Better control over weeds, pests and diseases.
➢ Prevent soil erosion.
Demerits of intercropping
➢ Intercrops require more agricultural inputs.
➢ Creates obstruction in free use of machines for intercultural
operations.
➢ Allelopathic effect (harmful effect of one crop on the other due to
biochemical exudation).
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24. C. Mixed cropping
❑ Mixed cropping deals with growing two or more than two crops
simultaneously on the same piece of land without define row pattern or
fixed ratio by mixing the seeds of crops intended to be grown mixed or
sowing alternate rows in various ratios.
❑ It is commonly practiced in dry land areas.
❑ Sometime intercropping and mixed cropping are treated synonymous to
each other or mixed cropping is identified as a type of intercropping.
Classes of mixed cropping
• Main crop may be permanent crop and associated crop may be
also permanent in nature.
• Main crop is permanent crop and associated crop may be annual.
• Agronomical type mixture of field crop.
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26. Merits of mixed cropping
– Dry farming support mixed cropping easily where monsoon is erratic.
– In case of failure of one crop another crop can give some return.
– There is economic utilization of space, light and nutrients.
– In mixed cropping, leguminous vegetables have important role in improving
soil fertility.
– It provides balance production.
– Mixed cropping reduces soil erosion.
– There is an effective control of weeds in mixed cropping.
Demerits of mixed cropping
– Certain pests and diseases may increase.
– Harvesting may be difficult due to different growth habit and maturity
periods.
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27. 3.Ratoon cropping
• It refers to raising of regrowth coming out from roots or stalks
of the preceding crop.
• In vegetables it is practiced in brinjal, chillies, okra, pointed
gourd and sweet gourd.
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28. 4. Crop rotation
▪ Crop rotation is the practice of growing crops on a particular piece
of land in a systematic sequence in order to maintain the soil
fertility.
▪ It may also be defined as growing of crops in recurrent succession
on the same piece of land either for a year or for longer period of
time.
▪ The rotation of crop may be for one year, two year, three or more
years.
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29. Basic principles of crop rotation
▪ A heavy nutrient feeder crop is followed by a crop that requires less
nutrients. Doing so the soil will not be depleted of its nutrients.
▪ A crop having high water requirement is followed by the crop with
low water requirement. In this way residual soil moisture is used by
the next crop, and hence saving energy as well as water.
▪ Deep rooted crop is followed by shallow rooted crop. Thus various
layers of the soil may be tapped for the essential nutrients for growth
and development of plants.
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30. ▪ A crop requiring more tillage operations is followed by a crop with
less tillage. This results in reduction of the cost of field preparation.
▪ Legume crop is followed by non-legume crop. This pattern will
maintain soil fertility status. Moreover, investment on fertilizer
application in legume crop is very less.
▪ Crops which return very little organic matter (viz., lettuce, green
onions, radish, spinach etc.) should alternate with crops which return
considerable amounts of humus forming residues (cabbage, garden
peas, beans etc.) Thus, physical condition of the soil does not
deteriorate.
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31. Exampleof a FourYearCrop Rotation 31
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33. Merits of crop rotation
• Crop rotation makes vegetable farming systematic.
• It is a potent way of controlling weeds, insect-pests and diseases.
• It adds nitrogen and organic matter in the soil, and helps in
maintaining balance between soil nutrients.
• It utilizes farm resources (land, labour, equipment etc.) efficiently
and effectively
• It regulates the use of plant nutrients from the soil due to an
appropriate alternation of crops.
• It increases overall yield and quality of the produce.
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34. Cropping systems for Carbon sequestration
• Carbon sequestration in cropland has very important
role in reducing the atmospheric concentration of CO2
for mitigating climate change.
• C-sequestration means storing of C in some other form
than CO2 and effective cropping systems help in this
way by storing it in the form of biomass.
• Cropping systems, such as crop rotation, intercropping,
cover cropping, companion cropping, etc., helps in the
optimization of the efficiency of C-sequestration in
agriculture by influencing optimal yield and total
increased C-sequestered with biomass.
• An ideal cropping system for C-sequestration should
produce and remain the abundant quantity of biomass
or organic C in the soil.
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35. • The organic C-concentration in the surface soil (0-15
cm) largely depends on the total input of crop residues
remaining on the surface or incorporated into the soil.
• Therefore, to improve C-sequestration, it is critical to
increase the input of plant biomass residues.
• Biomass accumulation can be enhanced by an increase
in cultivation intensity, growing cover crops between
main crop reducing fallow period of land, crop
rotations and intercropping systems.
• Biomass return to the soil can be improved by
elimination of summer or winter fallow, and
maintaining a dense vegetation cover on the soil
surface, which can also prevent soil from erosion for
soil organic carbon (SOC) loss.
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36. Assessment and productivity of cropping systems
• Assessment and productivity of multiple cropping systems or of component crops
should be done in quantitative terms.
• Several indices have been proposed to compare the efficiencies of different multiple
cropping systems in terms of land use.
1) Multiple cropping index. Proposed by Dairyinpie (1971), it is calculated by
dividing the total crop area by total cultivated land area and multiplying by 100.
2) Diversity index (DI). Suggested by Strout (1975) and Wang and Yu (1975), it
measures the multiplicity of crops or farm products which are planted in a single
year by computing the reciprocal of sum of squares of the Yi gross revenue received
from each individual farm enterprise in a single year.
3) Harvest diversity index (HDI). It is computed using the same equation as the DI
except that the value of each farm enterprise is replaced by the value of each
harvest.
4) Simultaneous cropping index (SCI). nIt is computed by multiplying the HDI with
10,000 and dividing the product by MCI.
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37. 5) Cultivated land utilization index. This is calculated by summing the
products of land area planted to each crop, multiplied by the actual
duration of that crop and divided by the total cultivated land area times
365 days.
6) Cropping intensity index. It assesses a farmer’s actual land use in area and
time relationships for each crop or group of crops compared to the total
available land area and time, including the land available for production
(Menegay et al., 1978).
7) Specific crop intensity index. SCII is a derivative of CII and determines the
amount of area-time devoted to each crop or group of crops compared to
the total time available to the farmer (Manegay et al., 1978).
8) Relative cropping intensity index (RCII). It is another modification of CII
and determines the amount of area—time allotted to one crop or group of
crops relative to the area- time actually used in the production of all the
crops.
9) Input and output. In general terms, efficiency (E) can be described as an
output (O) per unit of input (I) (Spedding, 1973).
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38. CONCLUSION
• The objective of any cropping system based research work is to
develop an efficient cropping system that maximises the resource
use (soil, water, sunlight, vegetation, humans and animals).
• This can be achieved through identification of crop adaptation
zones for maximum productivity, based on soil, climate and
management strategy.
• As food crops, vegetables constitute a very important role because
of higher productivity in a short time along with year round
availability.
• We can improve the productivity of vegetables at maximum with
sustainability by adopting suitable cropping systems.
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