[1][2] The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a given piece of land by making use of resources or ecological processes that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop.
Numerous types of intercropping, all of which vary the temporal and spatial mixture to some degree, have been identified.
French peasants similarly ground wheat and rye together to make pain de méteil, or bread of mixed grains.
Careful planning is required, taking into account the soil, climate, crops, and varieties.
Inga alley cropping has been proposed as an alternative to the ecological destruction of slash-and-burn farming.
Intercropping of compatible plants can also encourage biodiversity, McDaniel et al. 2014 and Lori et al. 2017 finding a legume intercrop to increase soil diversity,[12] or by providing a habitat for a variety of insects and soil organisms that would not be present in a single-crop environment.
For example, such practices may limit outbreaks of crop pests by increasing predator biodiversity.
For example, while many trap crops have successfully diverted pests off of focal crops in small-scale greenhouse, garden and field experiments,[19] only a small portion of these plants have been shown to reduce pest damage at larger commercial scales.