Difference between Mixed Cropping and Intercropping

Difference between Mixed Cropping and Intercropping

Mixed Cropping

Farming is an agricultural process of harnessing solar energy in the form of economic produce of plants and animals. The Indian farmers depend a great deal on the monsoon rain for water. Monsoons sometimes bring very heavy rain and cause floods. Sometimes there are dry spells which lead to drought conditions. Also, the amount of rainfall in a particular season is not dependable. Therefore, the small and marginal farmers, particularly in the rain-fed regions cannot take the risk of growing specialized crops. They prefer a farming system, called mixed cropping which is the practice of growing of two or more crops simultaneously in the same piece of land. It is an age-old practice in our country. Indian farmers used to mix the seeds of two crops and sow in the field.

Intercropping

Intercropping is a practice of growing two or more crops simultaneously in a same field in definite row patterns with the objective of increasing productivity per unit area. The practice of intercropping adopted by small farmers and where farmers have least access to irrigation. Intercropping is an improved version of mixed cropping. All the crop combinations in mixed cropping can also practiced in intercropping. But row patterns are definite, i.e., 1:1,1:2 or 1:3. It means after one row of main crop, one, two, or three rows of intercrops can be grown.