Question

Explain the advantages and disadvantages of mixed cropping.

Answer 1

Following are the advantages of mixed cropping:

1. It reduces the risk of crop failure due to environmental stress.
2. Pest infestation of crops is greatly reduced.
3. It increases soil fertility.
4. It increases the yield of both the crops due to complementary effect of each crop.
5. Farmers tend to harvest a variety of produce such as cereal, pulses or vegetables or fodder to meet the various requirements of family or of an agricultural farm.

Following are the disadvantages of mixed cropping:

1. Applying fertilisers to individual crops is very difficult.
2. Spraying pesticides to individual crops is difficult.
3. Harvesting and threshing of crops separately are not possible.