System Approach- Farming System
Farm resources – Land, labour, water, capital & infrastructure
Farm enterprises – Dairying, poultry, Honey bee keeping, sericulture, Laculture, Piggery, Sheep & Goat raising, Fishery.
Cropping system and Crop rotation: Cropping system represents crop’s (Cropping) patterns used on farm & their interactions with farm resources, other farm enterprises and available technology which determine their makeup. Crops pattern means the proportion of area under various crops at a point of time in a unit area. It indicates yearly sequence and spatial arrangement of crops & fallow in an area.
1) Monocropping/ monoculture: It refers to growing of only one crop on apiece of land year after year. It may be due to climatologically, socio-economic conditions or due to specialization of a farmer in growing a particular crop. E.g.: Rice cultivation in A.P.
2) Multiple cropping: Growing two or more crops on the same piece of land in one calendar year is known as multiple crops.
3) Inter crops: It is growing of two or more crops simultaneously on the same piece of land with a definite row pattern. E.g.: Jowar + Tur, Cotton + Urd/Soyabean. Based on the percent of plant population used for each crop in inter crop’s system, it is divided into two types viz. additive series and replacement series.
a. Additive series: In this one crop is sown with 100% of its recommended population in pure stand which is known as the base crop. Another crop is known as intercrop, is introduced into the base Crop by adjusting or changing crop geometry. The population of intercrop is less than its recommended population in pure stand.
b. Replacement series: In these both, the crops are called component crops. By scarifying certain proportion of population of one component, another crop introduced.
Main objective of intercropping is higher productivity/unit area in addition to stability in production. It utilizes resources efficiently & their productivity is increased.
For successful intercropping there are certain important requirements:
1) The time of peak nutrient demands of component crops should not overlap.
2) Competition for light should be minimum among the component crops.
3) Complementary should exist between the component crops.
4) The difference in maturity of component crops should be at least 30 days.