Tropical and subtropical vegetables (2+1)

Cropping system

• With the pressure on cultivated land increasing one way to best production is to increase the crop productivity and the other alternative is to improve the land productivity per unit area and time through multiple cropping. Multiple cropping is the technique of growing more than one crop either together or in a sequence in a year or in an appropriate time span on the same piece of land. Rotating wide spaced crops with narrow spaced crops which will reduce weed intensity, as in wide spaced crops the inter cultivation is effective.
• Inclusion of chilli or tobacco are known to reduce weed intensity as the inter cultivations are done both ways and for long period in these crops. Incidence of fruit rot, bacterial & viral diseases can be minimized by raising chilli crop in rotation with cereals and pulses. Sorghum yields are higher when raised after chilli crop, Chilli and paddy are common rotations followed in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Sequential intercropping systems involving capsicums were found to be more remunerative than simple crop sequence in the North India. Soybean was found to be quite compatible as mixed crop with chilli in Karnataka.
• Chilli and cotton intercropping is very popular in transitional tract of Karnataka. The highest yields, in nutritional terms, were obtained with intercropping beetroots, knol-khol and peas with capsicum. For dry regions of southern Karnataka, finger millet could be grown successfully as mixed crop with chilli. Chilli crop grown for green fruits can be intercropped with Ragi under rainfed conditions on red clay loam soils.