Cropping Systems Point Wise Notes For Competitive exam

Cropping Systems

• A system consists of several components which are closely related and interacting among themselves.

• System is an arrangement of components which process inputs into outputs. Consists of boundaries, components, interactions between components, inputs and outputs.

• Crop system is an arrangement of crop populations that transform solar radiation, nutrients, water and other inputs into usefull biomass.

• Crop system is a subsystem of cropping system.

• In Maize crop system, Maize is the dominant crop which is grown in association with other crops.

• Cropping system is a land use unit comprising of soils, crops, weeds, pathogen and insect subsystems that transform solar energy, water, nutrients, labour and other inputs into food, feed, fuel and fibre.

• Cropping system is a sub system of farming system.

• Cropping system is also defined as cropping patterns used on a farm and their interaction with farm resources, other than farm enterprises, available technology and environment (physical, biological and socio economic) which determine their makeup constitute cropping system.

• Livestock system is a land use unit comprising of livestock and auxiliary feed sources transforming plant biomass into animal products.

• Farming system is a decision making and land use unit comprising of farm house hold, cropping and livestock systems that produce crop and livestock products for consumption and sale.

• Farming system is the scientific integration of different interdependent and interacting enterprises for efficient use of land, labour and other resources of a farm family which provides year round income to the farmers specially in the handicapped zone.

• Enterprises that could be included in farming system are crops, vegetables, livestock, fruits, flowers, dairy, poultry, pig, goat, sericulture, bee keeping, mushroom cultivation, agroforestry, silviculture, agro based industries and food processing.

• Farming system is a resource management strategy to achieve economic and sustained production to meet diverse requirements of farm house hold while a system is preserving resource base and maintaining a high level enevironmental quality.

• Agro-ecosystem: Agro-ecosystems are ecological systems modified by human beings to produce food, fibre or other agricultural products.

• Agro-ecosystems are structurally and dynamically complex and the complexity arises from interaction between socioeconomic and ecological processes.

• Agro – Ecological zone is an area of similar soil, vegetation and population density characteristics resulting in a similar type of cropping system.

• Efficient cropping zone is the zone where both yield and spread indices are maximum.

• Most efficient zone of a crop is where both the indices are above 100 and least efficient zone of a crop is where the indices are below https://somabest.com 100.

• Cropping pattern means the proportion of area under various crops at a point of time in a unit area. It indicates the yearly sequence and spatial arrangement of crops or of crops and fallow in a given area.

• Cropping pattern is crop rotation practiced by majority of farmers in a given area.

• Crop rotation refers to recurrent succession of crops on the same piece of land either in a year or over a longer period of time.

• Crop rotation is the key of modern scientific agriculture which aims at producing maximum yield by maintaining soil productivity.

• Leys are temporary, short term two to five years specially sown pastures consisting of grasses and legumes.

• Ahlgren defined ley farming as a system of farming in which grasses and legumes are included in proper rotation for hay, silage and pasture to care for maximum livestock needs and to improve and conserve soil fertility.

• In traditional agriculture the objective to increase production by two means

1) Increasing the area of cultivation

2) Increasing productivity per unit area of crop

• But in modern agriculture two more dimensions are added

1) Increasing the production per unit time

2) Increasing production per unit space

• Mixed farming is a system of farming on a particular farm which includes crop production, raising livestock, poultry, fisheries, bee keeping etc. to sustain and satisfy as many needs of the farmer as possible.

• Sole cropping/solid planting is the cultivation of one crop variety alone in pure stand at normal density in a certain time and place.

• Cropping scheme is the plan according to which crops are raised on individual plots of a farm with an objective of getting maximum returns from each crop without impairing soil fertility.

• Soil fertility and crop yields are important factors in determining which cropping programme to follow.

• Amount of labour and capital required, prices in relation to resources influence adoption of a particular cropping scheme.

• Repetitive growing of same crop on same land year after year is called monoculture or monocropping.

• Cropping Intensity/Index = No. of crops grown in a year in a piece of land × 100