A Review: Effect of Inter Cropping in Horticultural Crops

Abstract

Mono-cropping style production has significant problems and that there exists a sufficient justification for studying intercropping approaches. Intercropping provide insurance against risk and give stable returns even under unfavorable weather conditions. The most common advantage of intercropping is the production of greater yield on a given piece of land by making more efficient use of the available growth resources using a mixture of crops of different rooting ability, canopy structure, height and nutrient requirements based on the complementary utilization of growth resources by the component crops. The objectives of this review are to assess the available literatures on the intercropping systems, to show the scientific justifications on the advantages and disadvantages of the system in an attempt to provide the comparative advantages over the mono-cropping system and to indicate as the system can allow more efficient uses of on farm resources like water in order to enable sustainable crop production for a nation.