The Ecology of Intercropping

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Paperback | 19 October 1992

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248 Pages

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22.86 x 15.24 x 1.42

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The practice of growing two or more crops together is widespread throughout the tropics and is becoming increasingly practised in temperate agriculture. The benefits of nutrient exchange, reduced weed competition and pathogen control can generate substantial improvements in growth and yield. In this book John Vandermeer, a leading worker on the subject, shows how classical ecological principles, especially those relating to competition and population ecology, can be applied to intercropping. Despite the large amount of research activity directed towards the subject over the last 20 years, the practice of intercropping has, until now, received very little serious academic attention. The Ecology of Intercropping is unique in approaching the question of intercropping from a theoretical point of view. In addition the details of the approach will take as their starting point well-accepted ecological theory. Using this basis the author shows how the approach can be used to design and evaluate intercropping systems to improve agricultural yields.

Industry Reviews

' ... an important step in the development of a theoretical framework for evaluating and designing intercrops.' Trends in Ecology and Evolution

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Non-Fiction Engineering & Technology Agriculture & Farming Agronomy & Crop Production

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Non-Fiction Engineering & Technology Agriculture & Farming Agronomy & Crop Production

Preface	p. ix
Introduction: intercrops and ecology	p. 1
The limited intentions of this book	p. 4
The nature of ecological theory	p. 5
Some questions of terminology	p. 6
Overview of the general theory	p. 9
Future use of intercrops	p. 13
Structure of the book	p. 13
The measurement of intercrop performance	p. 15
The bases for comparison	p. 15
The problem of population density and planting design	p. 15
The yield set	p. 18
Criteria for intercrop advantage	p. 19
The land equivalent ratio	p. 19
Other criteria of success	p. 23
Some recurrent statistical problems	p. 26
The competitive production principle	p. 29
The basic idea	p. 29
Some interesting antecedents	p. 33
Niche theory, effect-response and yield sets	p. 34
Competitive production and environmental grain	p. 41
Applying the principle in nature	p. 41
Summary and conclusions	p. 44
Facilitation	p. 46
The basic idea	p. 46
Effect-response and the yield set	p. 47
Niche theory	p. 50
Competition and facilitation together	p. 50
The question of grain	p. 52
The potential set	p. 52
The environmental grain	p. 53
More on the potential set	p. 56
The potential set, adaptive function and environmental grain - the details	p. 58
The range of systems and the potential set	p. 58
The adaptive function	p. 59
Maximizing yield on the potential set	p. 62
The shape of the potential set	p. 64
Mechanisms of the competitive production principle	p. 68
Partitioning the light environment	p. 70
Partitioning soil resources	p. 76
The interaction of soil factors and light	p. 84
The environments modified to produce facilitation	p. 86
Nitrogen	p. 86
Water	p. 89
Non-nitrogen nutrients	p. 91
Protection from pests	p. 93
The disruptive crop hypothesis	p. 95
The enemies hypothesis	p. 100
Trap-cropping	p. 100
The detection of facilitation	p. 103
Special problems in intercrops involving perennials	p. 106
Introduction	p. 106
Young perennial plantation with an annual intercrop	p. 109
The light environment in a mature plantation	p. 111
Some qualitative features	p. 111
Diffuse radiation	p. 116
The shadow of a canopy	p. 118
The shadow with a filtering canopy	p. 118
Time in the shadow	p. 120
Potential applications	p. 124
Weeds and intercrops	p. 127
Competitive interactions among three species	p. 129
Weed control as indirect facilitation	p. 134
Summary and conclusions	p. 138
Appendix A	p. 139
Appendix B	p. 140
Variability and intercrops	p. 141
Problems of measurement and evaluation	p. 142
Variability, competition and facilitation	p. 144
Risk and facilitation	p. 153
A simple example	p. 154
The adaptive function under risk minimization	p. 155
The optimization problem	p. 157
Appendix A	p. 161
Planning intercrops - a phenomenological approach	p. 162
Competition theory for even-aged stands	p. 163
A computer-based linear methodology	p. 166
The basic idea	p. 166
Stabilizing the yields	p. 167
Estimating parameters	p. 170
An example	p. 171
Planning intercrops - a mechanistic approach	p. 176
Introduction	p. 176
Mechanisms of reduced competition	p. 177
Partitioning the light environment	p. 177
Partitioning the resource environment	p. 179
Mechanisms of facilitation	p. 179
Pest and natural enemies dynamics	p. 180
Trap-crops	p. 182
Planning for weed control	p. 185
Summary and conclusions	p. 188
Critical research directions for the future	p. 189
Dynamic plant growth and interaction models	p. 189
The question of mechanization	p. 199
The question of genetic improvement	p. 202
References	p. 204
Author index	p. 227
Subject index	p. 231
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

The Ecology of Intercropping

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

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How to return your order

Defective items

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