Considerations on agricultural systems of polycultures or associated crops

Polyculture systems, crop associations or multiple crops as they wish to be called are systems in which two or more plant species are planted with sufficient spatial proximity to result in an interspecific competition and/or complementarity. As an alternative to the conventional methods of the supposed Moderna agriculture, new agroecological technologies of more sustainable production have been applied in recent years which have among their principles to make a greater use of the soils by means of a better distribution of the surface and management of the crops. Within these techniques, polycultures constitute a practice that has been exploited in many developing countries, whose rationality implies a better use of resources and the available land area.

This type of systems have allowed in some cases, to achieve that the families dedicated to agriculture have a subsistence at the food level since, they manage a high diversity of species in the areas destined to production in addition to it at the system level they can get to obtain a high biological and economic stability. According to several researchers, including Miguel Altieri, a large part of the production of staple crops in the Latin American tropics comes from a polyculture system combining crops such as cassava, corn and beans combined with each other or with other crops.

In tropical areas, as mentioned above, polycultures are frequent, especially in small farms whose farmers lack capital or credits to buy a wide variety of inputs necessary to maintain production. But in the same way, polycultures can also be established in temperate zones, on more or less extensive, highly mechanized farms with capital availability.

In the same vein, it should also be noted that in recent years, research has been carried out worldwide with the aim of accumulating information on the development and adaptation of these systems and determining the possibilities of applying this agroecological technique on a scientific basis, with a view to increasing efficiency in land use, diversifying, making production more economical, reducing the risks of crop losses, production costs and the ecological balance of said productive space.

Among the advantages that this type of systems can have, we can mention the dynamics of pest-insect populations that generally cause less damage to crops, this is due, according to those reported by some Cuban researchers, to the visual response of the pest being hindered. They place as an example the association of corn with sweet potatoes that can create a physical barrier that prevents the spread of the pest insect. It can also be mentioned among its advantages the better use of soil nutrients with the consequent improvement of productivity per unit area. Since combining plants with different radical systems such as trees exert a pumping effect of nutrients and legumes that fix atmospheric nitrogen with the symbiosis they perform with some bacteria.

Finally, some possible disadvantages can also be mentioned such as the difficulty in the mechanization of the soil since, various operations are needed among which are the sowing or planting, the application of plant protection products, and the harvest depending on the distance in which they sow, therefore agronomic practices and the necessary technology must be adapted to the different requirements of the crops.

Dear readers, these are viable production alternatives in the different production units to take advantage of the surface area that is available, for this, of course you must know the crops that are intended to be associated to work in the most efficient way in the field, you can take into account their growth habits suddenly sow a creeping crop with an erect bearing, or low-bearing arable crops with high-bearing crops.