Cropping system and cropping pattern

In this article we have covered both Cropping system and cropping pattern and also covered intercropping, crop rotation.

Cropping system

Cropping system could be defined as crop production enterprise used to derive benefits from a given resource under specific environmental conditions. It refers to cropping patterns used on a farm and their interaction with farm resources, other farm enterprises and available technology. Thus cropping system is an important component of farming system.

Cropping Pattern

Cropping pattern means the proportion of area under various crops at a point of time in a unit area. It indicates the yearly sequence and spatial arrangement of crop and fallow in an area. In our country already about 44 per cent of total area is cultivated and there is hardly any scope to bring more area under cultivation to meet the growing need of food production for feeding the ever- increasing population. The productivity of land has to be increased by using modern agricultural technology including appropriate cropping systems and cropping methods.

Shifting Cultivation

North-eastern region is predominantly covered with dense forest. In this -region forest trees are cut, undergrowth vegetation is burnt, and land is made suitable for crop cultivation. The crops are grown for 1 to 3 years or until the productivity of soil is depleted or land is infested with bioagents such as weeds, pests and pathogens. After 2 to 3 years the farmers move to other site, leaving the land for regeneration of soil productivity. Locally this practice is known as jhum cultivation or jhuming.

Settled or Permanent Agriculture

In this type, agriculture is practiced in an area either owned or taken on lease by farmers where cultivation is done permanently. Farmers improve, maintain and protect the land for generations. In settled agriculture several types of cropping systems can be followed, depending upon the agro- climatic conditions and availability of resources. The various types of cropping systems followed are given below:

Monocropping

Monoculture or monocropping refers to growing of only one crop on a piece of land year after year. It may be due to climatological limitations or due to specialization of a farmer to grow a particular crop. Under rainfed conditions in kharif season maize, bajra, sorghum, groundnut etc. are grown year after year due to climatological limitations, i.e. availability of rainfall. In canal-irrigated areas rice is grown year after year.

Multiple cropping

In multiple cropping two or more crops are grown in succession within a year. It is intensification of cropping both in time and space dimensions, i.e. more number of crops are grown within a given period of time on same piece of land. It includes double cropping, sequential cropping, intercropping, relay cropping etc.

Double cropping

It refers to growing of two crops in a sequence on the same piece of land in a year, e.g. rice-wheat, maize-wheat or potato, sorghum-gram etc.

Sequential cropping

It can be defined as growing of one or more crops in a sequence on the same piece of land in a farming year. Under rainfed conditions, sequential cropping is limited to the period of adequate soil- moisture availability for crop growth. The succeeding crop is planted after the preceding crop has been harvested.

Relay cropping

It refers to planting of succeeding crop before the harvest of preceding crop.The succeeding crop may be planted before or after flowering, before or after attainment of reproductive growth, completion of active life-cycle or attainment of physiological maturity. For example, sowing of cucurbits in maturing potato сгор.

Intercropping

Generally farmers grow several crops simultaneously in the same season either by mixing their seeds or by growing them in separate rows. This is done to meet their dietary need for food, pulses, oilseed etc. and for other requirements. Inter cropping has been defined as growing of two or more crops simultaneously on same field in definite sequence of rows. In this system both the crops complete their major part of the life-cycle together. Both the crops may be sown or harvested at the same time or at different times. The intercrops are fast growing and have short duration, grown between two rows of slow growing main crop, e.g. urd/moong/cowpea with maize.

Mixed cropping

It refers to growing of two or more crops simultaneously in the same field with or without distinct row arrangement. In this system seeds are either mixed and sown by broadcasting or in line sowing or they may be sown separately.

Principles of Intercroping

The crops having complementary effect should be preferred over those having competitive effect.
The two crops should have different lengths of growing period, i.e., one crop should be of short duration and other of long duration.
The plants of both the crops should be different in growth habit, i.e. one should be tall and other dwarf. Similarly, one crop should be shallow rooted whereas the other should be deep rooted. an
One crop should have low water and nutrient requirement, whereas the other should have higher water and nutrient requirements.
Erosion-permitting crop should be intercropped with erosion-resistant crop.
The nutrient requirement of each crop should be met with separately to eliminate competition between them.

Advantages of Intercropping

Under abnormal situation of climate, intercropping prevents complete failure of crops.
It provides better utilization of different resources like water, nutrients, land and labour.
Farmers get all their required agricultural commodities from a limited space. Thus profit per unit area is increased.
It helps prevent soil erosion compared with sole cropping
Weed infestation and management are less because of smothering effect.
Insect and disease incidence is reduced due to difference in growth habit of companion crops.

Limitations of Intercropping

The sowing of intercrops is slightly different and requires more time, hence cannot be adopted by large farmers.
Herbicidal weed control is not possible and hence it requires manual weeding.
The quality of produce is sometimes deteriorated due to mixing of two crops.
Under irrigated conditions it may not be a profitable practice.

Types of Intercropping

There several are types of intercropping adopted in the country. Parallel cropping: Under this cropping two crops are selected that have different growth habits and have zero competition. Both of them express their full yield potential, e.g. maize+urd/ moong, sorghum+moong/urd, groundnut +pigeonpea.

1-Companion cropping

In this type of cropping the yield of one crop is not affected by the other. In other words, the yield of both the crops is equal to their pure crop and recommended plant populations of both the crops are maintained, viz. sugarcane+mustard/ peas; sugarcane+gram (autumn planted).

2-Multi-storied cropping

Growing plants of different heights in the same field at the same time is termed multi- storied cropping. It is mostly practiced in orchard and plantation crops for maximum use of solar energy even under normal planting density e.g., papaya + berseem, lucerne in guava and citrus orchards.

3-Synergistic cropping

When yield of both the crops grown together is higher than the yield of their pure stand it is known as synergistic cropping, e.g. sugarcane+potato.

4-Ratooning

It refers to raising of regrowth coming out of roots or stalks of the preceding crop, e.g. sugarcane.

5-Strip cropping

Strip cropping is a system under which ordinary farm crops are planted in relatively narrow strips, across the slope of land. The erosion-permitting crops are maize, sorghum, pearl millet, cotton etc. which are grown at wider row spacing and clean tilled, whereas erosion- resistant crops produce good cover on the soil in short period and protect soil from erosion. The erosion- resistant crops are cowpea, moong, urd, moth, cluster bean etc. The practice of strip cropping reduces the velocity of run-off and silt gets deposited with erosion-resistant crop strips.

Crop Rotation

Crop rotation and crop sequence are generally used synonymously. Crop rotation is defined as recurrent succession of crops on the same piece of land either for a year or for a longer period of time. Component crops are so chosen that soil health is not impaired.

Principles of Crop Rotation

The selection of crops to be grown in rotation should be based on following principles:

A deep-rooted (tap root) crop should be followed by a shallow-rooted (fibrous root) crop.

The leguminous crop should be grown after non-leguminous crop.
Fertility-depleting crop should be grown after fertility-building crop.

Advantages of Crop Rotation

By growing leguminous and non leguminous crops in rotation, soil fertility is restored by fixing atmospheric nitrogen encouraging and microbial activity.
It helps maintain physio-chemical properties of soil.
It helps protect the soil from erosion, salinity and acidity.
It also reduces the incidence of insects, pests, diseases and weeds.
Proper utilization of all the resources and inputs could be made by following crop rotation. There is better utilization of family and farm labour, bullocks, power machinery. And Agricultural operations can be done timely for all the crops because of less competition.
Farmers get better price for their produce because of its higher demand in the locality or market