Editorial: Intercropping Systems in Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable intensification in agriculture

Potential Role of Maize-Legume Intercropping Systems to Improve Soil Fertility Status under Smallholder Farming Systems for Sustainable Agriculture in India

The Indian population is growing rapidly (1.25 billion) and it has to fulfill its food and nutrition requirement. A collaborative strategy should be adopted for increasing productivity by intensifying available land use system. Intercropping is advanced management practices of soil fertility status, consisting of cultivating two or more crops in the same space at the same time, which have been ...

Does intercropping have a role in modern agriculture?

I ntercropping—growing two or more crops at the same time on a single field—is an ancient practice still used in much of the developing world. For example, in Africa, corn (Zea mays L.), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), or millet (Panicum and Pennisetum spp.) are grown with pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.) cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp), pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.), or beans (...

Agrometeorology and sustainable agriculture

Current concerns with the sustainability of agroecosystems in different parts of the world have hightened the awareness for careful use of the natural resource base on which agriculture depends. For proper and efficient use of soils and plant/animal genetic material, knowledge of the role of climate is an essential precondition. Several elements of the chapters in Agenda 21, a global plan of ac...

Paraquat and sustainable agriculture.

Sustainable agriculture is essential for man's survival, especially given our rapidly increasing population. Expansion of agriculture into remaining areas of natural vegetation is undesirable, as this would reduce biodiversity on the planet. Maintaining or indeed improving crop yields on existing farmed land, whether on a smallholder scale or on larger farms, is thus necessary. One of the limit...