Influence of intercrop on plant growth and yield
2014
Dane, S., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia);Pure Horticultural Research Centre, Pure parish, Tukuma municipality (Latvia) | Laugale, V, Pure Horticultural Research Centre, Pure parish, Tukuma municipality (Latvia)
The demand for healthy and reasonably cheap food is growing and governments are expanding policies to preserve soil fertility and nature. In addition, climatic conditions are changing. Arable lands are decreasing. Due to all of these changes food growers are looking for new growing technologies. A monographic method to tackle these problems has been used in this article. Intercropping is one of growing systems how to reduce negative climatic aspects and meet other demands. Intercrop is convenient for growers who grow plants in rows, and a companion plant can be sown or planted between rows. In this case farmers can get two yields from one plot. Thus, growers do not need two plots for growing different plants. The intercrop diminishes spreading of pests and diseases, suppresses weed growth, and reduces need for pesticides. Legume (Leguminosae) intercrop gives extra nitrogen to companion plants. Those are aspects that we know intercrop can give, but we do not know how significant the influence is, what kind of influence on nature intercrops give in long term, what kind of influence they have on incomes, yield and its quality. This article shows that there are many intercropping systems to reduce some negative aspects and increase beneficial ones. Intercropping can reduce some pests and diseases, but promote other problems. Intercropping suppresses weeds. For some systems it gives bigger yield, for some smaller, but in total it gives bigger protein yield. There are still many unanswered questions and completely unexplained points.
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