Multiple Cropping:
Multiple cropping, defined as harvesting more than once a year, is a widespread land management strategy in tropical and subtropical agriculture. It is a way of intensifying agricultural production and diversifying the crop mix for economic and environmental benefits.
- It can take the form of double- cropping, in which a second crop is planted after the first has been harvested, or relay cropping, in which the second crop is started amidst the first crop before it has been harvested.
- One example of multi-cropping is tomatoes + onions + marigold; the marigolds repel some tomato pests.
Agro forestry:
Agroforestry is an integrated approach of using the interactive benefits from combining trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, and sustainable land-use systems. A narrow definition of agroforestry is “trees on farms.
Benefits
- Reducing poverty through increased production of wood and other tree products for home consumption and sale.
- Contributing to food security by restoring the soil fertility for food crops
- Cleaner water through reduced nutrient and soil runoff
- Countering global warming and the risk of hunger by increasing the number of drought- resistant trees and the subsequent production of fruits, nuts and edible oils
- Reducing deforestation and pressure on woodlands by providing farm-grown fuel wood
- Reducing or eliminating the need for toxic chemicals (insecticides, herbicides, etc.)
- Through more diverse farm outputs, improved human nutrition
- In situations where people have limited access to mainstream medicines, providing growing space for medicinal plants.