Selva Rani A, S Subbulakshmi, K Kavitha, S Nazreen Hassan, R Latha and S Suresh
Coconut(Cocos nucifera L.) is an important perennial crop grown in the homestead garden as monocropping. It is a gift of nature and is cultivated worldwide because of its multiple uses. Coconut monocropping planting systems and growth habits effectively used only 22% of the land area, while canopy space utilization was around 30%, and solar radiation was around 45%. Coconut based cropping system depicts the arrangement of multispecies utilizing the available space, both horizontally and vertically, effectively on a sustainable manner. Intercropping results improvement in the soil properties and biological activities in the root region. Overall the microclimate is modified for the better crop growth and development. Income obtained per unit area of this system will be much more than from a corresponding area of pure plantation crop. It is viable in economically, environmentally and ensures rural prosperity in the coconut growing communities. The basic idea of intercropping is not only that two or more crop species grown together can exploit the resources better than either of them grown separately, but also cover inherent risk in agriculture and more so, under dryland condition which buffers to some extent and is called as "biological insurance" (Ayyer, 1963). Studies also revealed that sole crop of coconut with a spacing of 7.5m x 7.5m effectively uses only 22.3% of land area (Durieux,1997), while the average air space utilization by the canopy is about 30% and solar radiation interception is about 50% (Thiruvarassan et al., 2014; Dan et al., 2005). Adoption of coconut based intercropping system is one of the ways to utilize natural resources effectively. The potential for increasing the productivity per unit area of land, time and inputs through coconut based cropping system is considerably higher net return per unit area in perennial crops (Bavappa and Jacob, 1982).
Selva Rani A, S Subbulakshmi, K Kavitha, S Nazreen Hassan, R Latha, S Suresh. A review on coconut based intercropping. Int J Res Agron 2024;7(9S):243-247. DOI: 10.33545/2618060X.2024.v7.i9Sd.1475