Advantages of Grain Legume-Cereal Intercropping in Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Sustainable agriculture bases on certain ecological principles in both of crop production and livestocks. Legume-cereal intercropping in sustainable agricultural cropping system is the most applied in the intercropping systems in the World. Legume-cereal intercropping have many benefits such soil conservation, weed control, animal feed and effective land use, greater yield and quality in low-input agricultural system. Land use efficiently is available to evaluate the advantages of intercrop in sustainable agriculture to meet food demand due to increase in population. Amount of N2 fixed by intercropped legume is less compared to mono crop legume due to competition with cereal. However, proportion of total N derived from fixation (Ndfa %) in legume intercropped with cereal was greater than mono crop legume. N-transfer from the legume to neighbouring plant may be possible, but it can be affected by a lot of factors. The principal aim of present study is to define advantages of cereal-grain legume intercrops in sustainable agriculture.

Keywords

• grain legume-cereal intercropping
• sustainable agriculture
• environmental resource use
• efficient n utilization
• cropping system