English for Agriculture unit 6 READING: POLYCULTURE

Polyculture

Polyculture is a system in which two or more useful plants are grown on the same land. Variations within the system are multiple cropping, mixed cropping, intercropping, relay planting, interplanting, and interculture.
Multiple cropping is the growing of more than one crop in the same land in one year. For example, buckwheat  may be grown after harvesting peas . Both crops are grown as monoculture crops, but they are planted and harvested within  one year.
Mixed cropping is the growing of two or more crops simultaneously and intermingled , with no row arrangement.
Intercropping is the growing of two or more crops in alternate  rows , for example, maize alternating with soybean.
Relay planting is the practice of interplanting of the maturing  crop with seeds or seedlings of the following crop.
Interplanting is the practice of planting a short-term  annual crop with a long-term annual or biennial  crop. Oats  and alfalfa, for example, are commonly interplanted in the temperate zone.
Interculture is the cultivation of one crop underneath a perennial  crop, such as rice under coconut palm.
Polyculture is the dominant  farming system in many areas of the tropics, where the degree of mechanization and the use of agricultural chemicals remain low.