Classification Of Crops
Arable crops: Crops which are cultivated on ploughed land. They are annual crops and include cereals, root crops, tobacco, sugarcane, maize and potatoes.
Aromatic crops: The crop/plant contain odoriferous and volatile substances, which occur as essential oils, gum exudates, balsam and oleoresin in one or more part of plant, viz. wood, bark, foliage, flower and fruit are called aromatic plants.
Alley Crops: Alley crops or hedge-row intercrops is grown under an agroforestry practice in which perennial, preferably leguminous trees or shrubs are grown simultaneously with arable crop. The trees, managed as hedgerows, are grown in wide rows and the crop is planted in the interspace or ‘alley’ between tree rows.
E.g. Sweet potato, black gram, turmeric and ginger are grown in the passages formed by the rows of eucalyptus, Subabul and Cassia. Etc.
(Classification Of Crops)
Augment crops: Such crops are grown to supplement the yield of main crops. E.g. Japanese mustard with berseem.
Avenue crops: Such crops are grown along farm roads and fences e.g. Pigeon pea, Glyricidia sisal etc.
Border/guard crops: Such crops protect another crop from trespassing of animals or restrict the speed of wind and are mainly grown as border e.g. safflower (thorny oilseed crop) is planted around the field of gram.
Cash crops: A crop, such as tobacco, grown for direct sale rather than for livestock feed or a crop grown by a farmer primarily for sale to others rather than for his or her own use e.g. sugarcane, cotton, jute, tobacco etc.
(Classification Of Crops)
Catch/Contingent crops: Such crops are cultivated to catch the forthcoming season when main crop is failed e.g. linseed, toria, urd, moong, cowpea, etc.
Contour crops: Crops are grown on or along the contour line to protect the land from soil erosion e.g. marvel grass etc.
Cover crops: A close growing crop grown primarily to improve or protect the soil from erosion through their ground covering foliage and/ or rootmats between periods of regular crop production e.g. Lobia, groundnut, urd, sweet potato, methi etc.
(Classification Of Crops)
Complementary Crops: Both main and intercrop is benefited to each other e.g. Jowar+ Lobia
Competitive crops: Such crops compete to each other and are unsuitable for intercropping e.g. two cereals.
Exhaustive Crops: The crops leave the field exhaustive after growing e.g. Cereals (rice).
Energy crop: An energy crop is a plant grown as low cost and low maintenance harvest used to make bio- fuels, or directly exploited for its energy content e.g. Sugarcane, Potato, maize, tapioca.
Fouling Crop: Such crops whose culture practices allow the infestation of weeds intensively e.g. direct seeded upland rice.
(Classification Of Crops)
Ley crops: Any crop or combination of crop is grown for grazing or harvesting for immediate or future feeding to livestock e.g. Berseem+ Mustard.
Medicinal crops: The crop/plant contains alkaloids, glycosides, steroids or other groups of compounds of medicinal value, which is used commercially, such plants are called Medicinal plants.
Mulch crops: Such crops are grown to conserve the soil moisture through their ground covering foliage e.g. cowpea.
Nurse crops: A crop of trees (nurse trees), shrubs or other plants introduced to foster or nourishment of other crops by i.e. shading it, protecting it from frost, insolation or wind. The widest use of nurse crops is in the establishment of leguminaceous plants such as alfalfa, clover e.g. Sunhemp in sugarcane, jowar in cowpea, Rai in pea.
(Classification Of Crops)
Paira/ Utera crops: The seed of succeeding crops like Lentil, gram, pea, lathyrus, Berseem, linseed etc. is sown broadcast at 10 to 15 days before harvesting rice crop. This practice saves time, money (to be spent on land preparation etc.) utilizes residual fertility. This practice is common in both upland lowland rice culture.
Paired row crops: Generally, the third row of crop is removed or growing of crop in pair row and the third row is escaped with an object to conserve the soil moisture in dryland areas.
Restorative crops: Restorative crops are crops that help in maintaining the fertility of soil, for e.g. pulses and legumes.
(Classification Of Crops)
Silage crops: Such crops like corn, legumes, and grasses that have been harvested at early maturity, finely chopped, packed tightly to exclude air, and stored in tower silos, pits, or trenches for properly fermentation which is used as animal feed during lean period or off season e.g. Maize, cowpea, jowar etc.
Smother crops: Smother crops are specialized cover crops being ability to suppress weeds by providing dense foliage and quick growing ability e.g. buckwheat, mustard, cowpea, urd etc.
Stimulate crops: Stimulate crops stimulate the human body e.g. tobacco, opium etc.
Supplementary crops: Such cops are neither complementary nor competitive e.g. Maize+ cucurbits.
(Classification Of Crops)
Trap crops: Trap crops are grown to protect the main cash crop from a certain pest or several pests. These crops are planted in completely surrounding the main cash crop and prevent pest attack from all sides of the field through attracting the pest e.g. cotton red bug trapped by ladyfinger around cotton.
Truck crops: Growing one or more vegetable crops on a large-scale form fresh shipment to distant markets. Most important truck crops are potato, tomatoes, lettuce, melons, beets, broccoli, celery, radishes, onions, cabbage,and strawberries.
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