What is the use of mixed crops for farmers and soil
Answers
Answer:Mixed cropping, typically a mixture of legumes and cereals or tuber crops, is a common practice in marginal agro ecological environments, which fulfills a variety of functions, including complementary use of growth factors, such as soil nutrients, light, and water; reduced pest and disease incidence, reduced soil erosion, more total biomass production, more yield stability, and more household food security. Furthermore, the mixtures can be flexibly adjusted to conditions such as late or early onset of the rainy season or status of soil fertility in different fields.
Because formal breeding programs seldom consider such farming practices, the resulting varieties have usually never been tested for their ability to function under such conditions. In PPB programs, however, it is common for farmers to test experimental varieties on their own farms, thereby identifying genotypes for specific “niches” of their farming systems, including mixed cropping.