Structure, budget needed for intercropping strategy
Given our limited land, resources, and low farmer incomes, we must immediately implement intercropping as a key national agriculture strategy.
Structure and budget must follow strategy. But for intercropping, we lack all three.
According to the National Water Resources Measures, intercropping is “the practice of 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.”
It could be planting a deep-rooted crop with a shallow-rooted one, or a taller crop with a shorter one that requires partial shade.
In a previous column, I had said that two out of our three million coconut hectares have nothing planted in between the coconut trees, this leaves much of the coconut land idle.
Coconut study
A coconut study showed that intercropping would multiply the coconut farmers’ income by two to ten times, at a low investment cost.
The recorded farmer income increases per crop are as follows: coffee-2.4X, cacao-2.8X; mangosteen-5.3X, durian-7.8X, mango-9.4X; and banana-12.6X.
A few days after my column on coconut intercropping was published, an ampalaya farmer told me his income increased much more than 10 times.
With “sili” intercropped in a half hectare with a low P5,000 investment cost for seeds, his annual income amounted to P200,000. This is at the current P40 a kilo farmgate price. At a previous recorded P80 price, this would have been P400,000!
Additional income changes depend on the market at a given place and time. It is therefore imperative to consider market and price when choosing which product to use for intercropping.
Pros and cons
Intercropping has advantages and disadvantages.
GeoPard identifies seven advantages: (1)proper management of land; (2)increased profit; (3)prevention of soil and wind erosion; (4)ecosystem improvement, including release of oxygen for respiration; (5)decreased usage of inorganic substances, thus minimizing pest invasion and soil infertility; (6)improved health of consumers through reduced usage of inorganic substances; and (7)management of natural resources through effective use and energy savings.
However, intercropping has disadvantages.
Four are listed here: “(1)Intercropping is not always suited to a mechanized farming system; (2)It requires more attention, and thus increased intensive, expert management; (3)There is reduced efficiency in planting, weeding, and harvesting- which may add to the labor costs of these operations; and (4)Good planting is very important, and includes cultivar selection, proper spacing, etc.” (graces.co.za)
Having considered intercropping’s advantages and disadvantages, we must now choose from different kinds of intercropping.
Row intercropping is where plants are arranged side by side in a row. Strip intercropping is an advanced version of row intercropping in that is more mechanized, vast, is practiced in a large-scale setting, and uses modern machines for each crop.
Relay cropping is where one or two more crops are grown on the same land, but not at the same time. Alley cropping is where crops are planted between trees and bushes. Temporal cropping involves growing trees that mature at different lengths. (geopard.tech/blog)
Situation
At present, the Philippine Coconut Authority has a specific fund for intercropping.
The Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry provides technical help for three kinds of intercropping: short-term (e.g. pechay), medium-term (e.g. ube) and longer-term (e.g. mangoes).
They focus on effective technology and good agriculture practices. At present, there is no national integrated program for intercropping, which is sorely needed at this time.
For those interested in science and business-based intercropping, A conference on “The Science of Intercropping Coconut and Cacao Plus Cash Crops” will be held at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu on Oct. 16 to Oct. 17.
Participants will be farmers, agribusiness, state colleges and universities, and government agencies. It is open to all, sponsored by the Philippine Cacao Industry Association, with contact person Mary Grace Cepillo (0945-5411501).
With intercropping as a key national agriculture strategy, our agriculture development will be considerably hastened. It will benefit our food security, exports, and especially farmers with low incomes from their monocropping.
