Question

What is mixed cropping? What are the criteria for selecting crops for mixed farming?

Answer 1

Hint: The farming process is a very important agricultural practice and to increase the yield of crops there are many different cropping techniques used by the farmers. This technique is cheap and helps to improve not just the yield but also the quality of the seeds and maintain the fertility of soil.

Complete Answer:
- Farmers select different types of cropping processes to improve the cultivational system, this include; intercropping, crop rotation, and mixed cropping. In intercropping, two or more crops are grown simultaneously in the same field in a definite pattern. This process involved the increase in the per unit area productivity.
- In this process, both the crops are threshed and harvested easily and it involves in the reduction of soil erosion and increases the use of natural resources like water, soil, and light in a better way. Examples of this technique is; bajra + cowpea and soybean + maize.
- In crop rotation technique, different crops are grown in the same field in pre-planned succession, this process involved in the recovery of the nutrients lost by the soil, it involve as control of pest, diseases, and weed among the crops, and it reduces the use of chemical fertilizers which are dangerous for our environment.
Example of this technique is; rice-wheat, maze-mustard-sugarcane-fenugreek, maize-mustard, maize-potato-sugarcane-peas.

- Now, in mixed cropping, two or more crops are grown simultaneously in the same land, this technique involves in the reduction in the crop failure, in this process the seeds of the plants to be cultivated are mixed before sowing, in this technique the harvesting and threshing of both the plants are done together as individual harvesting and threshing of crops is not possible, this technique increase the crop yield.
Examples of this technique is; wheat + gram, wheat + mustard, groundnut + sunflower. The selection of crops in this technique is based on the difference in the nutrient requirement of the crops, the farmers selects the crops that have different nutrient demands so that the fertility of the soil is also maintained.

Note: Crops of different growth habits, duration of growth, different root development, and crops from different families are being selected in the inter cropping process. Students may get confused between inter and mixed cropping processes but remember in intercropping the plants are grown simultaneously but in mixed the seeds are mixed before sowing.