Project funded
by theEU–DGEnvironment
L
and
surfacerelevant
forapplication
Artificial surface
Agriculture land
Forest and semi-natural areas
Wetlands
F
inancialcosts
(C
apital
,
operation
&
maintenance
)
Costs associated with intercropping are low. Subsidies available for supporting
practices like intercropping are estimated to be around €110/ha/year in Europe.
D
esign
Mixtures have to be well thought through in intercropping systems. Intercrop-
ping should include crops which will
not compete
too much for light, water,
nutrients and space, such as deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants, or tall with
short crops. Efficient mixtures will depend on the local environmental conditions.
A
Cereals-legume
mixture is found often to be energy-efficient as well.
Trees
can also be part of intercropping systems.
S
cale
Intercropping is applicable at field scale.
Intercropping is the practice of growing
two or more crops in proximity
. The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a given
piece of land by making use of resources that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop. Examples of intercropping strategies are planting a deep-rooted
crop with a shallow-rooted crop, or planting a tall crop with a shorter crop that requires partial shade.
Numerous types
of intercropping, all of which vary
the temporal and spatial mixture to some degree, have been identified: mixed intercropping, row cropping, relay cropping, etc.
AGRICULTURE
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