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SHeLF 6, Multiple Cropping – From One Field With More Crops Growing Almost At The Same Time, Harvesting More – Higher Incomes!

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“Multiple cropping” equals “crop mix” – Grow more than 2 crops and harvest more than 2 kinds and earn from more than 2 harvests! You multiply your costs, but since they are relatively low, you continue to multiply your returns! (image from agriculturistmusa.com ) Katharina Waha et al . ( Science Direct , sciencedirect.com ) say: Multiple cropping… is a widespread land management strategy in tropical and subtropical agriculture. It is a way of intensifying agricultural production and diversifying the crop mix for economic and environmental benefits. A native of Asingan, Pangasinan in Central Luzon, I have not seen multiple cropping either in Asingan, or in the Pangasinan towns I have visited over the years: Bimmaley, Binalonan, Lingayen, Malasiqui, San Manuel, San Nicolas, Santo Tomas, San Vicente, Tayug, Urdaneta, and Villasis. Waha et al say that there are more than 200 multiple cropping systems: Multiple cropping is common and a widespread land use management strategy i...
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SHeLF 5, Intercropping – When 2 Or More Crops Share Field Space And Contribute More To Farmer’s Income

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As the above images, both from Philippine sources, would indicate, the harvests (plural) are/will be abundant – for the benefit of the farmer and his family. This is intercropping , “the cultivation of two or more crops simultaneously on the same field” ( Wikipedia , ( en.wikipedia.org ). Whether the farmer harvests the crops simultaneously or one after the other, the sum total of the values belong to him. I’m sorry to say that Filipino farmers do not practice intercropping, missing the values “2 in 1”. (image sources: top, dreamstime.com , bottom, ews-kt.com ) Wikipedia says there are 4 ways to do intercropping: (1) mixed intercropping, (2) row cropping, (3) temporal, and (4) relay cropping. In Batangas, I myself have seen pineapple plants growing under coconut trees, and I have written about it (see my 21 June 2017 article, “The Oils War Continues...” iPursuit Of Knowledge , blogspot.com ). Wikipedia points out: The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater y...
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“SHeLF: She, He Self-Help Farming” – A More Direct, Personal View Of Regenerative Agriculture

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I am discontinuing my earlier blog, “Regenerative Agriculture, Help! 13” with this one, “SHeLF She, He Self-Help Farming” – to emphasize the self-help nature of farming that I am advocating to farmers, knowing that there are 2+ million of poor farmers in the Philippines ( statista.com ). (Sources of images: top, topcounselingschools.org ; bottom, mungfali.com ) Early morning of today, Tuesday, 03 Sept 2024, when I woke up and before I got up from bed, I realized that what I have been laboring to promote in my blog are in fact packages of “self-help agriculture” – a term I have given birth just now, on my birthmonth. Earlier, with the blog “ Regenerative Agriculture , Help! 13” ( blogspot.com ), I began “selling” each of the 13 practices I have listed under RA – today, I continue to plug for RA under the new blog, “SHeLF: She, He Self-Help Farming.” Note that the name itself includes the female as a would-be farmer – and that the objective is “self-help farming.” SHeLF – There is t...
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