How to Increase Income through Intercropping with High Value Crops like Sugarcane and Maize by TCL
About the Solution
This guide offers a practical strategy for getting more from small farms by growing two crops together. It shows how to plant secondary crops, like pulses or groundnuts, between the rows of main crops like sugarcane or maize. If one crop fails or its price drops, the other can protect a family’s income. Using plants that naturally add nutrients to the soil also improves its health, building a stronger and more sustainable farming system for small-scale farmers.
This solution by Trust Community Livelihood (TCL) provides a guide on how to practice intercropping with high-value crops. This method requires less investment in fertilizers, reduces the risk of crop failure, and is more climate resilient. It can be easily adopted by marginal farmers and vulnerable sections of the populace.
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Trust Community Livelihoods (TCL) is a non-profit organization registered in 2011, working to improve the lives of the rural poor in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Its core mission encompasses promoting community-based livelihoods, ensuring quality primary education, and supporting migrant entitlements across Bahraich and Shrawasti districts. In its second decade, TCL has strategically adopted Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and integrated livestock, particularly goats for ultra-poor households, to build resilience against climate change and provide symbiotic, diversified income sources alongside traditional farming.
They can be reached via:
Phone: +91 522 4013085
Mail: contact@trustnetwork.org.in
Training
Category – Implementation, Capacity Building, Handholding, Knowledge Documentation & Resources, Monitoring Evaluation & Learning, Demonstration
Sub-Category – Increasing income through intercropping with Sugarcane-Maize
Duration – N/A
Group Size – N/A
Willingness to travel – Yes
Languages Supported – N/A
Certification – N/A
Assessment – N/A
Mode – N/A
Institution / Trainer – Trust Community Livelihoods (TCL)
Schedule – N/A
Short Description –
Audience: Trainer, practitioner, Community Resource Persons
Objectives:
- Growing two crops is a form of
climate smart agriculture where risks from extreme events or from pest and disease attacks are mitigated. Even if one crop fails, income from the other crop can sustain the farm household - Multi-cropping can mitigate risks from market fluctuations that affect one crop
- Better soil health, with one crop fixing nutrients in the soil that the other crop can use
- Increase in incomes, due to additional earnings from two crops especially in small land-holdings. Ideal for farm sizes of just 1 bigha or lesser
- Better utilisation of resources to grow an additional crop