SMALL-SCALE farmers mostly cultivate coconut as a single or mono-crop. By adopting such a system, a majority of farmers fail to earn sufficient income. Therefore, it becomes necessary to grow some other crop like cereals, fodders, vegetables etc in coconut farms. The growing of other crops in coconut farms has several advantages.
These advantages include an increase in productivity due to coconut yield and inter-crops and efficient land and labour utilization at farms. When seasonal crops are grown in coconut farms, it is called inter-cropping. With perennials it is called mixed cropping. When different crops are grown with coconut, it is known as multi-cropping.
From the land utilization point of view, coconut utilizes only 25 per cent of the soil mass while 75 per cent of the area is not utilised effectively. The unutilised coconut land can be efficiently utilized for inter-cropping.
Nutrients removed from coconut palm as well as inter-crops are very important factor which should be taken into account while applying fertilizer. Various crops remove different quantities of nutrients. While the highest requirements of most crops are for nitrogen and potassium, attention be paid when coconut is inter-cropped with tubers, banana, pineapple and sugarcane, which also require high potash. For beneficial effect of potassium which depends on adequate amounts of nitrogen, adequate amounts of nitrogen and potash are very important.
If the soil is deficient in these two nutrients, and they are removed by coconut as well as inter-crops and if they are not replenished, there will be a decline in the yield. Therefore, it is important to select the most suitable inter-crops for coconut plantation of different age, group and soil types.
Though coconut plantations are quite favourable for inter-cropping with a variety of crops, the success depends mainly on the proper selection of inter-crops.
Experiments were conducted under the COGENT project funded by The International Plant Genetic Resource Institute (IPGRI) at CARS PARC and progressive growers’ coconut gardens of Karachi. Under these trials, different vegetables were grown for additional income in the same piece of land.
The data showed that the produce of different vegetables was reasonable. However, carrot gave the maximum yield followed by tomatoes, Indian gourd, okra, bottle gourd and turnip. While calculating the economic returns based on market price, it was observed that tomatoes resulted in maximum returns because of the high market prices.
This was mainly because of the fact that tomato is normally grown as spring crop and during winter it is in short supply, but, the climate of Karachi favours its cultivation and it gets higher price also.
As far as farmers’ point of view or their practices are concerned, they prefer the vine crops, which require less irrigation and labour.
In general, it was observed that vegetable growing is profitable, particularly under young coconuts, where there is enough light penetration. It is considered imperative to educate farmers to go for vegetable inter-cropping in coconut farms where the soil and irrigation water are not a limiting factor.
Management of intercrops: After suitable selection of intercrops, adequate care is to be taken to manage them well. Proper management of the coconut intercrops system is essential to avoid the competition for soil moisture and plant nutrients between associated crops. Poorly managed coconut / inter-crops system may lead to a considerable reduction in yields of both crops and fail to achieve the benefits of inter-cropping.
Conclusion: Inter-crops can be grown successfully in the young fruit plantations to derive some income from the land before the fruit trees attain the bearing age.
* The main precaution which needs be taken is to grow crops which do not make a heavy draft on the soil for moisture and nutrients.
* The crops should be such that they would not encourage insects, pests or disease.
* Annual crops have to be preferred to perennials for obvious facilities in looking after the main crops.
* A crop which is in high demand and is likely to fetch good dividends, should be preferred.
* It may be profitable to grow vegetables for home consumption.Peas, tomato, brinjal’ gourd may be grown as inter-crops.
* Carrots, radish, cauliflower, onion, potatoes, chilies and quick maturing fruit crops like papaya, banana and pineapple can be generally grown for additional income from the land during the period when the main fruit trees are still young.
SMALL-SCALE farmers mostly cultivate coconut as a single or mono-crop. By adopting such a system, a majority of farmers fail to earn sufficient income. Therefore, it becomes necessary to grow some other crop like cereals, fodders, vegetables etc in coconut farms. The growing of other crops in coconut farms has several advantages.
