Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
Intercropping systems arrange crops in spatial and temporal patterns to maximize resource-use efficiency, such as sunlight, nutrients, and soil moisture, while reducing risks of crop failure.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
Multi-storeyed cropping (also known as multi-tier or multi-level cropping) is the practice of growing crop species of different heights simultaneously on the same piece of land.
This system is designed to utilize vertical space efficiently, capturing sunlight at different levels of the plant canopy.
A classic example is practiced in plantation crops (such as coconut or arecanut plantations):
- Top tier (tallest): Coconut palms, which capture direct sunlight at the highest level.
- Middle tier (medium height): Black pepper (vines trained on palms), cacao, or banana.
- Ground tier (lowest height): Pineapple, ginger, or turmeric, which thrive under shade or filtered light.
This multi-tier arrangement also optimizes root distribution in the soil profile.
Different species extract water and nutrients from different soil depths, minimizing underground competition.
In contrast:
- Parallel cropping involves growing crops that have different growth habits and do not compete with each other (e.g., Black gram + Maize).
- Sequential cropping involves growing two or more crops in sequence on the same field within a year, where the succeeding crop is sown after the harvest of the preceding crop.
Step 3: Final Answer:
Growing crops of different heights together at the same time is known as Multi storeyed cropping.