Crops

Intercropping for intensification and diversification in the Indo Gangetic Plains

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Southe Asia farmers in field
Project code
CROP/2021/155
Program
Budget
AUD 170,000
Research program manager
Dr Eric Huttner
Project leader
Alison Laing
Commissioned organisation
CSIRO
Duration:
DEC 2021
2023
JUN 2023
Project status
Legally committed/Active
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Overview

This project aims to identify researchable opportunities to address technical, nutritional, and social bottlenecks to facilitate wide-row intercropping in the Indo Gangetic Plain, to inform the development of a larger ACIAR-funded project intended to commence in 2023.

Little research has been conducted to date into wide-row intercropping in South Asian agroecology. There are many potential benefits of wide-row intercropping, including increased cropping system productivity and other productivity gains leading to water-, labour- and energy-use efficiencies; improved nutrition and food security for rural households; economic empowerment for women; and increased soil health over the longer term.

To successfully and sustainably combine modern agronomic management with wide-row intercropping, a range of challenges must be resolved, including optimal agronomic management, household- and farm-scale implications, and potential off-farm bottlenecks. This research agenda will cover not only the agronomic but also the farm management and broader social and economic implications of wide-row intercropping.

Project outcomes

  • Identifying knowledge gaps in terms of appropriate and feasible mechanisation, agronomic practices, farming system integration, and access to markets, under current and likely future climates.
  • Examining the relative performance of three types of intercrop species; leafy vegetables, root vegetables and legumes.
  • Assessing changes in key inputs (labor, water, fertilizer, herbicides) under different types of intercrop and relative to sole maize.
  • Summarising current intercropping practices across the Indo Gangetic Plains, including knowledge gaps in agronomic management and the potential benefits and/or limitations of intercropping in this region.
  • Quantifying, through farming systems modelling, the likely farm-level impacts on labour, livestock, household nutrition, farming system productivity, profitability, and climate change resilience over the medium term and to identify further research questions to address in a larger research project.
  • Conducting a planning workshop to review SRA results and plan the larger project which is intended to commence in 2023.
Map
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Map-of-Bangladesh-India
Key partners
CSIRO
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
University Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (UBKV)