Two intercropping strategies were tested: (a) an additive design of within-row intercropping in which legume was intercropped with alternating hills of maize within the same row; maize plant population was the same as sole crop maize, and (b) a substitutive design with distinct alternating rows of maize and legume (local practice).
This paper presents the VERDI simulation model created to study various adaptive intercrop management strategies at field scale.
Intercropping is a strategy for increasing agricultural productivity per unit land that is based on ecological mechanisms for improved resource capture.
To address these issues, Ryan will team up with researchers at the University of Vermont and the University of New Hampshire to test intercropping and double-cropping strategies to increase farmers' capacities to absorb and adapt to extreme weather and restore farmers' resilience in the face of setbacks.
It is concluded that pea barley intercropping is a relevant cropping strategy to adopt when trying to optimize N2-fixation inputs to the cropping system.
Full sun strategies and systematic intercropping of annual crops were made possible by the tremendous increase in population density and labour.
As a result, cultivation practices became more intensive; crop rotation, multiple cropping and intercropping were adopted as effective strategies to maximize land productivity without endangering soil fertility.
Last, the employment of colour intercropping is an example of a strategy that could be particularly profitable to organic farmers who cannot use many conventional pesticides, or to any farmers for whom methods based on integrated pest management are desirable.
And of course, some of the most successful clean farming strategies are nothing new; intercropping and cover cropping, techniques that suppress weeds and protect soil, have been around for thousands of years.
In a related study, we also noted that potato farmers lack general knowledge on the existence of other pest management strategies like the use of intercropping, early planting, early harvesting, use of trapping devices, sanitation, crop rotation, biopesticides, and biological control agents in an Integrated Pest Management approach [ 27].
The combination of external field management (set-asides, field margins, hedgerows) and internal field management (intercropping, cover cropping, mulching) is therefore a mandatory strategy to fully exploit the beneficial effects of spiders.
