Millet and Pulses Based Intercropping: A Review

Abstract

World’s population is growing exponentially and agriculture has to fulfil their food requirements. An important strategy for increasing productivity and labour utilization per unit area of available land is to intensify land use. Intercropping is advanced agro technique of cultivating two or more crops in the same space at the same time. It increases in productivity per unit of land via better utilisation of resources, minimises the risks, reduces weed competition and stabilizes the yield. Millets are ancient nutri-cereals which play an important role in food and nutritional security of the country. They are commonly grown as sole crop world-wide. Pulse production can be increased by growing pulses on favourable lands that are occupied by cereals and cash crops by way of intercropping. The combination of cereal and legume in intercropping is mostly preferred by the farmers in subsistence farming targeting livelihood security. In this study, the works carried out by various researches in millet and pulse based intercropping are discussed. This review would be useful to the researchers who are involved in this field.