CROP ROTATION

The farmers are in the habit of growing different crops according to their needs and
facilities, but it is necessary for them to know more about it. Crop rotation is a
process of growing different crops in succession on a piece of land in a specific
period of time, with an object to get maximum profit from least investment without
impairing the soil fertility.

PRINCIPLES OF CROP ROTATION

There are certain accepted principles based on which the crops should be selected
for crop rotation.

The crops with tap roots should be followed by those which have fibrous root
system. This helps in proper and uniform use of nutrients from the soil and the
roots do not compete with each other for the uptake of nutrients.

The leguminous crops should be grown after non-leguminous crops because

legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil and add more organic matter to the
soil; while on the other hand, non-legumes are fertility depleting crops. Apart from
this, the nutritional requirements of these crops are different, e.g. legumes need
more phosphate and less nitrogen while non-legumes need more of nitrogen and
relatively low phosphorus. Thus a combination of these crops helps the farmers in
reducing their cost of cultivation.

More exhaustive crop should be followed by less exhaustive crops because crops
like potato, sugarcane, maize etc. need more inputs such as better tillage, more
fertilizers, greater number of irrigations, more insecticides, pesticides and better
care than crops like oil seeds, pulses etc. which need relatively less or little of the
above mentioned inputs.

Selection of the crops should be demand based i.e. the crops which are needed by
the people of the area and by the family members should be chosen so that the
produce can be easily sold at a higher price.

The selection of crops should be problem based e.g. On sloppy lands which are
prone to soil erosion, an alternate cropping of erosion promoting (erect growing
crops like millet, etc.) and erosion resisting crops like legumes, should be adopted.
Under dry farming or partially irrigated areas the selection of crops should be such
which can tolerate the drought similarly in low lying and flood prone areas the
crops should be such which can tolerate water stagnation e.g. paddy, jute etc.

The selection of crops should suit the farmers’ financial conditions.

The crops selected should also suit the soil and climatic conditions.

The crops of the same family should not be grown in succession because they act
like alternate hosts for insects, pests and disease pathogens. Thus, the control of
insects, pests and diseases becomes a perennial problem. Apart from this, types of
weeds found, are associated with various crops and selection of the same type of
crops in rotation encourages weed problems in the field viz. Johnson grass grow
with gramminaceous crop throughout year.

An ideal crop rotation is one which provides maximum employment to the family
and farm labour, the machines and equipments are efficiently used and all the
agricultural operations are done timely.

ADVANTAGES OF CROP ROTATION

An ideal crop rotation has the following advantages:

Agricultural operations can be done timely for all the crops because of less
competition. The supervisory work also becomes easier.

Soil fertility is restored by fixing atmospheric nitrogen, encouraging microbial

activity, avoiding accumulation of toxins (HCN etc.) and maintaining physic-
chemical properties of the soil. The soil may also be protected from erosion,
salinity and acidity.

An ideal crop rotation helps in controlling insects, pests and diseases. It also
controls the weeds in the fields e.g. continued growing of berseem encourages
chikori (kasani) infestation in the field and repeated wheat culture increase wild
oats and Phalaris infestation but an alternate cropping of berseem and wheat helps
in controlling kasani as well as wild oats and Phalaris. This is because of taking
several cuttings of berseem, the wild oats and Phalaris are also cut and in the
wheat the chikori (kasani) is controlled by 2,4-D spraying but if some plants are
left, they keep on growing and before they set into seeds, the wheat crop is
harvested. Thus all these weeds are controlled along with many other weeds
associated with wheat and berseem crops.

Proper utilization of all resources and inputs could be made by following crop
rotation. The family and farm labour, power, equipment and machines are well
employed throughout year.

The farmer gets a better price for his produce because of its higher demand in the
locality or market.

Growing crops of different root depths avoids continues depletion of nutrients from
same depths e.g. the deep rooted crops take nutrients from deeper zone and during
that period the upper zone gets enriched. Similarly the surface feeding roots take
nutrients from upper zone when lower zone gets enriched. Thus nutrients of entire
soil mass are fully utilized and cost of cultivation is reduced.

Best utilization of residual moisture, fertility and organic residues is made by

growing crop of different nature.

Ideal crop rotation improves percolation, soil structure and reduces chances or
creation of hard pan in sub-soil zone.

Some crop plants are found to produce photoalexins when they get infected by
diseases. Repeated cultivation of such crops results in harmful effects over crop
plants and lower crop yield is obtained.

The family needs of feed, food, fuel, fibre, spices, condiments, sugar, etc. are
fulfilled. The farmers keep on getting some income constantly from their cropping
which improves their socio-economic status and it also facilitates future crop
planning.

Growing different crops is very beneficial but sometimes the desired crops cannot
be grown because of certain governing factors. The factors which affect the
selection of crops are agro-climatic factors (soil and climate), irrigation,
availability of bullock and other powers, market facilities and type of farming and
customs in neighbouring areas.
MIXED CROPPING

Mixed cropping is the process of growing two or more crops together in the same
piece of land, this system of cropping is generally practised in areas where climatic
hazards such as flood, drought, frost etc., are frequent and common. The farmers
always fear that their crops will fail. Under mixed cropping, the time of sowing of
all the crops is almost failed. Under mixed cropping, the time of sowing of all the
crops is almost the same, however they may mature either together e.g. wheat+
gram or wheat + barley or wheat + mustard or they may nature at different times.

E.g. arhar + jowar + mung and till or groundnut + bajara etc.

Mixed cropping may be classified into the following groups, based on their method
of sowing:

(a) Mixed crops: in this group the seeds of different crops are mixed together and
then sown either in lines or they are broad casted. This system is not scientific and
it causes problems in performing all the agricultural operation and harvesting of
the crops.

(b) Companion crops: under this method the seeds of different crops are not
mixed together but different crops sown in different rows, e.g. between two rows
of mustard 5 to 8 rows of wheat or between two rows of arhar two – three rows of
groundnut are sown. This method of sowing facilitates in weeding, interculture,
plant protaction operation and even harvesting.

(c) Guard crops: under this system of cropping, the main crop is grown in the
centre, surrounded by hardy or thorny crops such as safflower around pea, or
wheat, mesta (Patsan) around sugarcane, jowar around maize etc. With a view to
provide protection to the main crop.

(d) Augmenting crops: when sub crops are sown to supplement the yield of the
main crop the sub crops are called as Augmenting crops such as Japanese mustard
with berseem. Here the mustard helps in getting higher tonnage of fodder inspite of
the fact that berseem give poor yield in first cutting.
Principles of mixed cropping:

 The most important point is selection of crops. Crops which compete with
each other should not be chosen. Therefore the following points should be
considered while selecting crops.
 Legumes should be sown with non-legumes examples arhar with jowar,
gram with wheat.
 Tall growing crops should be sown with short growing crops. e.g. maize
with mung/urd.
 Deep rooted crops (tap rooted crops) should be sown with shallow rooted or
adventitious crops.
 Bushy crops should be sown with erect growing crops.
 Crops being attacked by similar insects, pests and diseases should not be
sown together.
 Mixture should consist of short and long duration crops.

Advantages of mixed cropping:

Mixed cropping has the following advantages.

 All the crops do not fail under adverse climatic conditions, e.g. frost kills
only legumes, flood kills only dicot plants and drought kills the monocot
plants or shallow rooted crops. Thus the farmer gets some crops instead of
losing the entire crop.
 An epidemic attack of any insect, pest or disease kills only one crop without
affecting the rest of the crops.
 The farmer grows different crops which fulfil their daily need or demand for
cereals, pulses and oil seeds.
 Mixed cropping checks soil erosion, weeds etc.
 It improves or maintains the soil fertility.
 Family labour and cattle are employed throughout year.
 Legumes and non-legume mixture improves the fodder quality and quantity
both.
 It reduces cost of cultivation.
Intensive cropping

In developing countries like India where subsistent farming is still predominant,

evolution of high yielding varieties, expansion of irrigated area and rapid transfer
of technology have made green revolution a distinct possibility through majority of
beneficiaries were big farmers. In future much of the boost needed in agricultural
production has to be achieved from small farmers which can be possible only
through intensive cropping. The average cropping intensity is still about 115% in
India as against 185 in Taiwan (Darrymple, 1971). Much has to be done in low
rainfall areas which require an immediate attention on the design, testing and
identification of most befitting cropping systems for different regions aiming at
maximum utilization of physical resources like rainfall, solar radiation, irrigation
and soil for crop production.

Intensive cropping is the process of growing a number of crops on the same piece
of land during the given period of time. In other words, when the area is limited
and the number of crops to be grown is increased within a definite period of time,
this cropping method is termed as intensive cropping. The main objective is to
increase the income/unit area within a specified period of time.

Method of intensive cropping

The following methods have been developed to make intensive cropping a success.

Multiple cropping

This represents a philosophy of maximum crop production per unit area of land
within an agricultural year. In other words multiple cropping may be explained as a
cropping system in which two or more crops are grown in succession by adopting
the following cropping systems:

(a) Relay cropping: Relay cropping is analogous in a relay race where a crop
hands over a baton (land) to the next crop in quick succession. The best example of
relay cropping is given below.

Under rainfed or partially irrigated conditions:

Paddy-Lathyrus
Paddy-Lucerne

Paddy-Berseem

Cotton-Berseem

Here the seeds of lathyrus, lucerne or berseem are broadcasted in standing paddy
or cotton crop just before they are ready for harvesting.

Thus, the field is never fallow or there is no gap at all between two successive
crops.

Pre-requisite of intensive cropping.

For successful multiple cropping programme the following things must be made
available.

Availability of most suited high yielding and short duration crop varieties. These
varieties must be responsive to input doses and they should also be thermo and
photo non-sensitive so that at least three crops could be grown every year.

Availability of genetically superior quality seed or planting materials so that a

required genotype could be grown and they may express their full yield potentials.

An excellent physic-chemical properties of soil like well levelled land surface,

better structure, aeration, water holding capacity, permeability, free from
undesirable salts, etc. should be maintained. The soil should be rich in soil fertility
and organic matter content so that it may sustain high intensity cropping with
greater productivity.

The area should not be prone to climatic hazards like flood, drought, frost, etc. and
all preventive measures should be taken in advance to meet any such challenges.
The soil should be rich in soil fertility and organic matter content so that it may
sustain high intensity cropping with greater productivity.

Ready availability of inputs like labour, capital, irrigation, power, fertilizer, seed
and plant protection materials and equipments with technical details.
An official and regulated marketing facilities should be provided to the growers so
that they may get remunerative prices of their produce to enable them recycling of
funds in better crop planning. This would also avoid glut in the market.

The cultivators must be well acquainted with latest crop production technologies
like zero or minimum tillage, relay or overlapping cropping systems etc.

The farmers should get acquainted with allelophathic effects of some crops and
their associated weeds so that the susceptible crops could be avoided in succession
viz. accumulation of HCN in sorghum stubbles becomes toxic to wheat seedling,
therefore, wheat should be avoided after the sorghum.

The crops should be harvested at physiological maturity so that sowing of next

crop could not be delayed and every day of the year may be utilized for crop
production.

The farmers should know about post-harvest processing of various crops and their
products which may help in generating employment opportunities and in
appreciating the value of the produce. This would also reduce glut in the market
and a lower marketing competition will help in stabilising the prices of agricultural
commodities.

Crop insurance scheme should be launched for high input requiring crops or cash
crops like potato, tobacco, cotton etc.

The farmers must be acquainted with ill-effects of multiple cropping like gradual
depletion in soil fertility and deficiency of certain micro-nutrients, gradual build
up in population of certain pest and disease pathogens etc. so that timely curative
measures may be taken.

The farmers should be frequently trained in latest techniques through

demonstrations, field days, farmers’ meeting etc. for an efficient transfer of
technologies and their proper adoption by the farmers.

a. Under assured irrigated conditions:

 Maize-early potato-late potato-cucurbits

In this case the cucurbits are sown a few weeks before the potato tubers are lifted.
Thus, the cucurbits start before the potato crop finishes.

 Maize-potato-onion-bhindi

Here in the same plot, potato variety, K. Chandramukhi is sown in October, onion
is sown in furrows just after earthing, bhindi is sown in potato rows just after the
digging of potato tubers and later in the standing crop of bhindi, maize is sown.
This way there is no gap of time between two crops.

OVERLAPPING SYSTEM OF CROPPING

In this system the crop is harvested in phases and the vacated area is sown by next
crop viz. in case of forage sorghum, part of the crop is harvested for feeding to the
cattle or selling out in the market and vacated area is sown with berseem or
lucerne. Thus harvesting of sorghum and sowing of berseem is done
simultaneously in part of the field in phases rather than sowing entire field in
succession. This helps in a continuous supply of green fodder to the cattle as by the
time last portion of sorghum field is free for berseem sowing the berseem crop
sown in the first place becomes ready for first cutting e.g. Sorghum-berseem/
lucerne.

INTER CROPPING

This is a process of growing subsidiary crops between two widely spaced rows of
main crop. The main object of this type of cropping is to utilize the space left
between two rows of main crop and to produce more grain per unit area.

Principles of inter cropping

The crops grown in association should have complementary effects rather

competitive effects.

The subsidiary crop should be of shorter duration and of faster growing habits to
utilize the early slow growing period of main crop and they must be harvested
when main crop starts growing viz. faster sesamum, sawan, urd or mung grown
with red gram complete their life cycle by September, the period since when red
gram picks up branching and attains rapid growth. Autumn planted sugarcane
 remains dormant after germination uptil February during which potato, berseem,
lucerne, mustard, etc. could be taken successfully as companion intercrops.

The component crops should have similar agronomic practices.

Erect growing crops should be intercropped with cover crops like pulses so that the
soil erosion and weed population could be reduced or checked. This also helps in
reducing evaporation loss of water from soil surface.

The component crops should have different root depths so that they do not compete
for nutrients, water and root respiration among them.

A standard plant population of main crop should be maintained whereas that of

subsidiary crops the plant population could be increased or decreased as per
demand of the situation.

Component crops of similar pest and disease pathogens and parasite infestations
should not be chosen.

The planting method and management should be simple, less time taking, less
cumbersome, economical and profitable so that it may have wider adoptability.

Example: Maize intercropped with green gram, black gram or groundnut etc.

The intercrops differ from mixed crops in the following ways:

Difference between Intercrops and Mixed crops

Intercropping Mixed cropping

The main object is to utilize the space left The main object is to get at least one
between two rows of main crop especially crop under any climatic hazard e.g.
during early growth period of main crop. flood, drought or frost conditions.

More emphasis is given to the main crop Here all crops are given equal and there
and the subsidiary crops are not grown at is no main or subsidiary crop. Almost
the cost of the main crop. Thus there is no all the crops compete with one another.
competition between main and subsidiary
The crops are almost of the same
crops.
Subsidiary crops are of short duration and duration.
they are harvested much earlier than the
The crops may be broadcasted or sown
main crop.
in rows but the sowing time for all the
Both the crops are sown in rows. The crops is the same.
sowing time may be the same or the main
crop is sown earlier than the subsidiary
crops.

Intercropping may be divided in following four groups:

1. Parallel cropping:

Under this cropping two crops are selected which have different growth habits and
have a zero competition between each other and both of them express their full
yield potential.

Example: Mung or urd with maize and urd, mung or soybean with cotton.

2. Companion cropping:

In companion cropping the yield of one crop is not affected by the other. In other
words, the yield of both the crops is equal to their pure crop. Thus the standard
plant populations of both crops are maintained.

Example: Mustard, wheat, potato, etc. with sugarcane

3. Multi-storeyed cropping:

Growing plants of different heights in the same field at the same time is termed as
multi-storeyed cropping. It is mostly practiced in orchards and plantation crops for
maximum use of solar energy even under normal planting density.

Example: Eucalyptus, papaya, and berseem grown together.

Sometimes it is practiced under field crops such as sugarcane and potato and onion
(seed crop) or sugarcane, mustard and potato.
4. Synergistic cropping:

Here the yields of both crops, grown together are found to be higher than the yields
of their pure crops on unit area basis.

Example: Sugarcane and potato

Advantages of inter-cropping

It offers similar benefits to that from rotational cropping. The nutrients from
different layers of the soil are evenly used. A cereal-legume mixture is beneficial
because of an efficient fixation of atmospheric nitrogen into the soil. Leaf shedding
and their subsequent decomposition reduces the chances of micro-nutrient
deficiency in shallow or surface rooted crops like cereals as the legumes absorb
such nutrients from lower layer and return them to the surface soil through
shedding of leaves and decomposition.

Total bio-mass production/unit area/period of time is increased because of the

fullest use of land as the inter-row space will be utilized which otherwise would
have been used for weed growth. The farmer gets all his required agricultural
commodities from a limited space. Thus the profit/unit area becomes high.

The fodder value in terms of quantity and quality becomes higher when a non-
legume is intercropped with legume viz. Napier+cowpea-Napier+berseem.

It provides crop yields in installments which reduces the marketing risks.

It offers best employment and utilization of labour, machine and power throughout
year.

Assessment of land use and productivity in high intensity cropping programme:

High intensity cropping needs application of very high input levels

and a slight mistake may lead to severe losses. It is, therefore, essential to
assess the land use pattern and productivity under such cropping systems.
These things may be assessed by using following equations:
1. Multiple cropping index (MCI). It measures the sum of areas under various
crops raised in a single year divided by net area available for that cropping pattern
multiplied by 100. It is calculated for each cropping pattern separately and is very
similar to cropping intensity:

2. Diversity Index (DD). It indicates the multiply of crops or farm products which
are planted in a single year by computing the reciprocal of sum of squares of the
share of gross revenue received from each individual farm enterprise in a single
year. It may be calculated by using following equation

3. Harvest Diversity Index (HDI). It is calculated by using the DI equation except

that the value of each farm enterprise is replaced by the value of each harvest.

4. Simultaneous cropping index (SCI). It is calculated by multiplying the HDI

with 10,000 and dividing by MCI as stated below:

5. Cultivated land utilization index (CLUI). It may be calculated by adding the

products of land area planted to each crop, multiplied by the actual duration of that
crop to reach physiological maturity and dividing by the total cultivated land area
times 365 days:
It is applicable only in sequential cropping and the utility or sanctity of CLUI
becomes very limited if the harvesting is delayed or in case of relay cropping and
overlapping systems.

6. Cropping intensity index (CII). It determines the actual land use in area and
time relationships for each crop or group as against the total available land area
and time. It may be calculated by using following equation:

7. Specific crop intensity index (SCII). It may be calculated by using CII equation
and determines the amount of area-time denoted to each crop or group of crops as
against the total time available to the farmer.

8. Relative cropping intensity index (RCII). It is again a modification of CII which

determines the amount of area-time alloated to one crop or group of crops as
compared to the area-time actually needed in production of all the crops:

If RCII is more than 50% for a specific crop then that farmer is said to be
specialized grower of that particular crop.