System: is a group of interacting components, operating

together for a common purpose, capable of reacting as a

whole to external stimuli.
Collection of unrelated items is not a system.
Farming System: is a complex inter-relation of soil,
plants, animals, implements, power, labor, capital and
other inputs.
Farming system consists: cropping system, Livestock,
fishery, bee keeping, etc.
 Cont’d….
 These enterprises are interrelated.

 the end products and wastes of one enterprise is

used as inputs in other.

Examples.

 cow dung used as FYM in crop production

 straw is used as animal feed.

 Oxen is used for land preparation.

 Cont’d….
Cropping System: is cropping patterns used on a farm and their
interaction with farm resources and available technology.

It indicates:

 how crops are distributed in field and time.

 level of management and resource used.

 CS = Cropping pattern + interaction

Cropping pattern: is the proportion of crops at a point of time in a

unit area.

 It indicates yearly sequence and spatial arrangement of crop.

 Classification of Cropping System
Classified based on the following criteria:
1. Distribution of crops in time:
 shifting cultivation vs. continuous cropping,
 monoculture vs. crop rotation.
2. Distribution of crops in space (and time):
 multiple vs sole cropping.
3. Level of Production increasing strategy: intensive vs.
extensive.
4. Level of technology employed: traditional vs. modern
5. Water source: rain fed vs. irrigated.
6. Cropping season: rainy season vs. off season
 Shifting Cultivation Vs. Continuous Cropping
a. Shifting Cultivation:
 farm is not at permanent location.
 A land is cultivated for few years until productivity of
soil is depleted or land is infested with pests (weeds,
insect and pathogens).
 Then farmers move to other site, leaving the land for
regeneration of soil productivity
 natural vegetation is allowed to grow on old site.
 farmer returns to the original location.
 Shifting cultivation is now rare in Ethiopia
 It is practiced in Bench, Shakicho and Kefecho zones.
 Cont’d…
b. Continuous Cropping
Growing of crops on a piece of land year after year.

Crops are grown every year, land is not left fallow

Advantages
1. land utilization is efficient.

 land is under crops at any time.

2. To make permanent structures on the farm site

 Monoculture Vs Crop rotation
a. Monoculture/Mono-cropping :
 Growing only one crop on a land year after year.

• It may be due to:

 Climatic limitations. e.g. Water logging in Fogera plain,

farmers grow rice year after year.

 Socio-economic conditions. e.g. Teff in Ethiopia, rice in Asia.

 Specialization of a farmer: e.g. sugar cane factory in sugar

cane production year after year.
 Cont’d…
Advantages of monoculture
maximum concentration on a single crop
machinery under mechanized farming

Disadvantages of monoculture
1. encourages pests, diseases and weeds
2. can reduce soil fertility: depletion of soil
nutrients
3. risk of crop failure
 Cont’d…
b. Crop Rotation
 growing different kinds of crops, one at a time, in
a definite sequence on the same piece of land.
• Gondar Zuria:
 Tef – sorghum,
 Sorghum - chickpea/faba-bean
 Metema & T/Armachiho: Cotton-sorghum-
sesame
 Cont’d…
Principles of crop rotation
1. Legumes after non-leguminous: legumes fix

2. Fertility-depleting crop after fertility-building

3. deep-rooted followed by shallow rooted crops-

reduce competition for nutrients and water

4. Crops of different families in rotation- botanically

similar crops may be attacked by same pests
 Multiple Vs Sole cropping system
a. Sole Cropping: is growing of one type of crop on a
piece of land within a year.
 Major production practice in Ethiopian.
b. Multiple cropping :is growing of two or more crops
on the same piece of land within a year.
i.e. more number of crops within a year on same
land.
It is intensification in time and space
It includes sequential cropping and intercropping
 Cont’d….
i. Sequential cropping: growing of two or more crops in
a sequence on the same piece of land.

 succeeding crop planted after harvest of preceding

 Depending on number of crops grown in a year, it is

called: double, triple and quadruple

• e.g. -Rice-chickpea/grass pea

• -wheat/Barley-chickpea/grass pea/fenugreek
 Cont’d….
 ratoon cropping: cultivation of crop using re-growth of
stables of harvested crops.
e. g. ratoonning of sugarcane; Sorghum cotton.

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 Cont’d….
ii. Intercropping: growing of two or more dissimilar crops
in the same field at the same time.
e.g. Growing legumes or cover crop between cereal rows.
Types of intercropping practices
1. Row intercropping: is growing of two or more crops in
rows.

(a) Maize+ fababean (1:1) , Lentil + Linseed (2 : 1) 15

 Cont’d….
2. Mixed intercropping: two or more crops
intercropped simultaneously without row.

 Seeds of different crops are mixed in a certain

proportion and sown in broad cast.

 suitable for grass-legume intercrop in pastures.

 It is easy to do but makes weeding, fertilization

and harvesting difficult. 16
 Cont’d….
3. Relay inter cropping: growing two or more crops
simultaneously during part of their life cycle.
 A second crop is planted when the first crop reached
about its reproductive stage

 first and second crops spend most of their lives as sole crop, and
grow together for only few days.
 It enables to use better soil moisture
e.g. rice + chickpea relay inter cropping.
17
 Cont’d….
4. Strip-intercropping:
 is practice of growing two or more crop species in separate,
but adjacent, rows at the same time.

 Crops grow simultaneously in different strips wide enough to

permit independent cultivation but narrow enough to interact
economically.

 It avoids some disadvantages of intercropping:-

 managing single crop within the strip is easy

 competition between crops is reduced.

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 Principles of intercropping
 Complementary preferred to competitive.

 crops with different lengths of growing period.

 crops with different growth habit: tall and dwarf or

shallow and deep rooted.

 low and high water and nutrient requirement

 Erosion-permitting with erosion-resistant crop.

 Reduce nutrient competition between them.

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 Advantages of intercropping
1. Growing crops together > growing separately.

2. Additional income from companion crop.

3. Profit per unit area is increased.

3. Efficient utilization of resources: water, nutrients,

land and labor.

4. Prevents complete failure of crops.

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 Advantages of intercropping
5. one crop may exert beneficial effect on others.
E.g. legume + cereal crop
6. smother weeds : by 56%
7. prevent soil erosion
8. Reduce diseases and pests: act as barriers.
-reduced disease by 73%
e.g. push-pull system to manage corn stem borers and
weeds like Striga. Intercropping corn with:
-a pull crop (e.g. Napier grass)-attracts and
“push” crop (e.g. Desmodium) repels stem borers. 21
 Disadvantages of intercropping
1. Fertilizer management is difficult: different nutrient
requirement

2. Control of pests and diseases is difficult: need different

pesticides

3. Difficult for mechanized operations: planting, weeding and

harvesting and harvesting

4. Sowing of intercrops is slightly different and requires more

time
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5. Under irrigated conditions it may not be profitable.
 Inter cropping in Ethiopia
 Intercropping is a common practice in Ethiopia.

 Traditionally, farmers grow many of their crops in mixtures.

 They produce to get full yield of cereal and legumes as

additional yield.

 Intercropping is use full for SH farmers :

 saves limited land and scarcity of labor

 risk aversion: minimize the risk of weather,

 soil fertility.

 to satisfy dietary needs, 23

 Alley cropping
 Alley cropping is planting of two or more sets of single or
multiple rows of trees at wide spacing within which crops
are cultivated. Sometimes called inter cropping.

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 Evaluation of yield Advantage and
Competition Indices of inter cropping
1. Land equivalent Ratio (LER):

LER = LERa + LERb = Yab/Yaa + Yba/Ybb.

 If LER>1, intercropping has yield advantage

 If LER=1, equally important

 If LER<1, intercropping has disadvantage.

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 Evaluation of yield Advantage and
Competition Indices of inter cropping

26
 Cont’d…
.
Example: Under Maize and faba bean inter cropping trial,
yield of maize and faba-bean were 8 and 2 t/ha, and their
yield in sole cropping were 12 and 3 t/ha.
Interpretation
Answer Intercropping has a yield advantage.

intercropping has 34% higher

LERM = YMF/YM = 8/12 = 0.67. productivity than sole,

 34% land resource is saved by

LERF = YFM/YF = 2/3 = 0.67 intercropping, or

If we want to produce the same yield in

LER = LERM + LERF sole cropping, 34% more land would be
required.
= 0.67 + 0.67 = 1.34. 27
 Cont’d…
Exercise question: intercropping of Maize and faba bean

Yield (Q/ha)

Cropping System Maize Bean

Sole cropping 10 3

Intercropping 8 2
A. Calculate the LER?
B. Interpreted the result?

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