Organic Farming; Integrated Planting and Pest Management

Integrated Planting is to plant an assortment of plants in the same field, each plant having a specific purpose. The whole idea of farming is to produce food and whilst the principles outlined in this article can be used on any scale, it is primarily aimed for use by small scale farmers in developing countries, who do not have access to the same resources available in more developed countries. Having said that, the issue of whether to resort to Organic Farming or not is a global concern and forward thinking and the more enlightened farmers in developed countries are already changing the way they farm.

So, to a subsistence farmer in a developing country, the primary concern is to produce enough food for the family. Any excess is a bonus and that excess is often difficult to get to market before it goes off. Our aim is not only to introduce these farmers to a system of agriculture that is at one with the environment, it will also produce greater yields of superior quality and without any trace elements of toxic chemicals.

Now back to how to select plants for an integrated planting. The things to be considered are

(a) The creation of an environment that will provide an adequate habitat for pest predators

(b) Leguminous plants who's root nodules provide a habitat for Nitrifying bacteria that are essential to the production of Nitrogen in the soil

(c) Trailing plants that provide 'ground cover' and help shade the soil from the direct sunlight

(d) The seasonal crop, which in many cultures, is a staple food such as maize or rice

With the above as a guide, a number of other issues must be considered; What will grow well in the climate of an area, Ideally all the plants selected must produce a crop that will be used and can be sold in the local area, Will some of the plants provide an adequate habitat for pest predators and the plant populations must be carefully considered so that not too much demand is placed on the soil, but enough produce can be yielded.

A basic example is;

The staple crop is maize

The legume crop, pigeon peas

Ground cover using cucumber and pumpkin

Ground nuts can also be used as a ground cover crop

Inter-cropping can be done in a number of ways, and what we want to achieve is a natural balance;

Say for example we plant two rows of maize, two of ground nuts and one row of pigeon peas. All the rows with an 1 meter spacing and an inter-row spacing of say 50cm. We would then plant cucumbers an pumpkin; 1 station every 3 meters in-row and every 4th row. Each year/season, the maize and groundnut rows should be alternated because the ground nuts 'condition' the soil.

Looking at this we now want to establish some permanent structure for our plant predators without taking too much from the soil. This, we will discuss in the next post...........