#cropping system

A cropping system is the spatial and temporal arrangement of crops on a farm over seasons or years. Choosing the right cropping system can greatly influence yield stability, soil fertility, and resource efficiency. In modern agriculture, integrating precision tools like drip irrigation systems into cropping systems helps unlock better performance and sustainability.

Major Types of Cropping Systems

Monocropping: Growing the same crop repeatedly on the same land. While simple to manage, it often leads to nutrient depletion and pest build-up.

Crop Rotation: Alternating crops, such as cereals followed by legumes, improves soil structure and adds nitrogen through biological fixation.

Intercropping: Planting two or more crops together (for example, maize and groundnut) to maximize sunlight and nutrient use, reducing weed pressure.

Relay Cropping: Sowing a new crop before harvesting the previous one helps utilize available moisture and extend productivity.

Agroforestry Systems: Integrating trees with crops supports biodiversity and long-term soil enrichment.

Impact on Yield and Soil Health

Each cropping system brings distinct benefits and challenges, influencing soil health and productivity differently.

Improved nutrient cycling: Rotation and intercropping improve soil organic matter.

Better pest management: Diverse crops interrupt pest and disease cycles.

Higher water efficiency: Cropping diversity stabilizes yields even during dry spells.

Drip Irrigation in Modern Cropping

Netafim India’s drip irrigation systems play a critical role in optimizing cropping systems:

Supply water and nutrients directly to the root zone.

Enable fertigation, ensuring uniform nutrient distribution.

Reduce water usage by up to 50% compared to traditional irrigation.

Maintain ideal soil moisture and aeration for all crops within mixed systems.

Conclusion

Illustration Photo: Corn field in blossom (credits: mykaul / Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0)

Cropping system Innovation for coping with Climatic Warming in China

Authors: Aixing Deng, Changqing Chen, Jinfei Feng, Jin Chen, Weijian Zhang

Journal Title: Crop Journal

ISSN: 2095-5421 (Print); 2214-5141 (Online)

Publisher: Elsevier

Society/Institution: Crop Science Society of China

China is becoming the largest grain producing and carbon-emitting country in the world, with a steady increase in population and economic development. A review of Chinese experiences in ensuring food self-sufficiency and reducing carbon emission in the agricultural sector can provide a valuable reference for similar countries and regions. According to a comprehensive review of previous publications and recent field observations, China has experienced on average a larger and faster climatic warming trend than the global trend, and there are large uncertainties in precipitation change, which shows a non-significantly increasing trend. Existing evidence shows that the effects of climatic warming on major staple crop production in China could be markedly negative or positive, depending on the specific cropping region, season, and crop. However, historical data analysis and field warming experiments have shown that moderate warming, of less than 2.0 °C, could benefit crop production in China overall. During the most recent warming decades, China has made successful adaptations in cropping systems, such as new cultivar breeding, cropping region adjustment, and cropping practice optimization, to exploit the positive rather than to avoid the negative effects of climatic warming on crop growth. All of these successful adaptations have greatly increased crop yield, leading to higher resource use efficiency as well as greatly increased soil organic carbon content with reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Under the warming climate, China has not only achieved great successes in crop production but also realized a large advance in greenhouse gas emission mitigation. Chinese experiences in cropping system innovation for coping with climatic warming demonstrate that food security and climatic warming mitigation can be synergized through policy, knowledge, and technological innovation. With the increasingly critical status of food security and climatic warming, further efforts should be invested in new agricultural policy, knowledge and technology creation, and popularization of climate-smart agriculture, and more financial investments should be made in field infrastructure development to increase cropping system resilience in China.