Intercropping Casava and Peanuts

[oldmajor]

Hello All,

We have 18 Rai of good sandy soil in the Korat area. Does anybody have experience with intercropping Cassava with Peanuts in this area? Any better suggestions for intercropping? I'm a newbie to farming in Thailand so any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks a lot

[Lamkyong]

so is intercropping something done in between the main crop ?

[oldmajor]

Yes,

to quote WIKI:

"Intercropping is a multiple cropping practice involving growing two or more crops in proximity. The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a given piece of land by making use of resources that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop.^[1] Careful planning is required, taking into account the soil, climate, crops, and varieties. It is particularly important not to have crops competing with each other for physical space, nutrients, water, or sunlight."

[Lamkyong]

ok thanks so what will the main crop be ?

[soidog2]

Unless you are planting peanuts to enrich your soil, not such a good idea.

Cassava is a minimum 9 month crop, lots of weeding etc.

It makes a complete canopy over the dirt.

Peanuts will never make it.

Try something that does not disturb the soil when harvested, like corn; if you have water.

[oldmajor]

Looking on t'interweb, it appears that there have been several successful trials intercropping Cassava and Peanuts.

Here is an excerpt from the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.

"Normally cassava in Thailand is grown as a sole crop. Intercropping of cassava is practiced to a very limited extent. It can be intercropped with either maize or leguminous crops. In turn, cassava can also be intercropped between rows of young oil palm or rubber trees.

Legumes, mostly soybean, peanut and mungbean have been successfully intercropped with cassava in experimental systems. Yields of both legumes and cassava are usually reduced due to crop competition, but total yield or income may be quite high. Peanut is the most suitable crop, followed by mungbean. Soybean is the least suitable because of its poor adaptation to the type of soils in which cassava is grown. It is recommended that two rows of peanut spaced at 10 × 10 cm be planted between cassava rows spaced at 1 m. (Sinthuprama et al., 1993). Cassava farmers are well aware of the problem d many are now adopting certain measures to control erosion. In one pilot site of the FPR project, in Sra Kaew province, about 30 farmers have already planted contour hedgerows of vetiver grass to prevent soil erosion; they may also intercrop with mungbean or peanut to increase their income."

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If the Peanuts were planted at the same time as the Cassava, would the peanuts reach maturity before the Cassava blocks out all of the sunlight?

[soidog2]

"If the Peanuts were planted at the same time as the Cassava, would the peanuts reach maturity before the Cassava blocks out all of the sunlight?"

In good conditions; three, four month to complete canopy, how will you weed the cassava without killing the peanuts? by hand ? do you expect a profit ?

How will you harvest the peanuts also by hand ?

[Speedo1968]

Way back in the 1970's I farmed 6 hectares of land in Paraguay, hillside and with well water. In the second year I decided to try intercropping,, something which, as far as I was aware, was not being done. The three crops I used were corn, manioc ( yellow cassava ) ( wish they grew that here instead of the white which is mainly for animal feed ) and perrotto - a form of red bean. Generally having manioc as the main crop and corn or bean in between each manioc plant. The land was turned using buffalo. Not so much to save water, as with care and forward planning sweet water was available all year round ( despite surrounding land being rock or no wells etc ).

You may all ready know about raised beds or it may be of interest. I used "raised" beds for growing vegetables. A trench was dug around a workable area for a bed ( able to reach plants without standing on the bed ). Not exactly raised but they were higher because of the trench. This helped to trap moisture at night and seemed to concentrate added water within the plant area.

Finally all waste was used for compost or a form of silage / hay to feed the few livestock we had. I did have some concern about unsuitability of certain leaves from plants for feeding livestock but no problems occurred.

I started farming at 15 in 1960 and oh - how I miss it !!!

Good luck with the intercropping - be adventurous !

[oldmajor]

"If the Peanuts were planted at the same time as the Cassava, would the peanuts reach maturity before the Cassava blocks out all of the sunlight?"

In good conditions; three, four month to complete canopy, how will you weed the cassava without killing the peanuts? by hand ? do you expect a profit ?

How will you harvest the peanuts also by hand ?

I think that it is worth a shot experimenting with this. All weeding of cassava and harvesting of peanuts will be done by hand.

I will speak with the wife and ask her to give me a couple of rai as a test.

[oldmajor]

Way back in the 1970's I farmed 6 hectares of land in Paraguay, hillside and with well water. In the second year I decided to try intercropping,, something which, as far as I was aware, was not being done. The three crops I used were corn, manioc ( yellow cassava ) ( wish they grew that here instead of the white which is mainly for animal feed ) and perrotto - a form of red bean. Generally having manioc as the main crop and corn or bean in between each manioc plant. The land was turned using buffalo. Not so much to save water, as with care and forward planning sweet water was available all year round ( despite surrounding land being rock or no wells etc ).

You may all ready know about raised beds or it may be of interest. I used "raised" beds for growing vegetables. A trench was dug around a workable area for a bed ( able to reach plants without standing on the bed ). Not exactly raised but they were higher because of the trench. This helped to trap moisture at night and seemed to concentrate added water within the plant area.

Finally all waste was used for compost or a form of silage / hay to feed the few livestock we had. I did have some concern about unsuitability of certain leaves from plants for feeding livestock but no problems occurred.

I started farming at 15 in 1960 and oh - how I miss it !!!

Good luck with the intercropping - be adventurous !

Nice post Speedo.

I am no agronomist, but I think it well worth while experimenting. Providing there is no significant loss to the main crop (cassava) and the soil is not taking a big hit on minerals, intercropping must be one of the ways to increase utilisation of land. If crops are matched correctly, they may also be a benefit to each other or the soil.

[Speedo1968]

Thanks "oldmajor". Not sure if I explained clearly but the 'intercropping' I used was actually between individual plants,not planting one row of one species with a different species in the next.

row. If for example the spacing between plants ( cassava ) in a row is one metre then, another species would be placed at 50cms. This leaves ample space for weeding, for growth of cassava without disturbing adjacent plants and for harvesting. Although 40 years ago, from what I can remember, I certainly did not place 1 metre apart in a row, my legs are not that long, between rows probably.

The land was virgin, half still forested, it was possible that the clear area had been farmed at one time but i don't think it had, no stumps or other signs and the land to the front was untouched. Tapir and snakes a plenty. The only adjacent farm ( to the back of my land ) grew cotton, my concern here was from spraying, but normally the farmer had no money to buy cash / credit chemicals. I used no chemicals on anything i grew.

One other point may be of interest, i never watered plants in the morning, only in the evening. The climate there was sub-tropical, Isaan seems to be verging on a semi-arid climate, something to seriously think about for future crops / land usage.

Sorry if I ramble but having been in farming since I was 15 ( 1960 ), i miss it terribly.

I have added a link, although related to African farming may be of use.

http://www.infonet-biovision.org/sites/default/files/1855.starting.pdf

[soidog2]

Cassava at less than 4 ton per rai, you are loosing money.

With enough water and labor you can intercrop anything, the question was; is it practical? Definitely no.

Ps we grow a lot of cassava and occasionally peanuts.

Edited March 20, 2016 by soidog2

[Allgeier]

Cassava at less than 4 ton per rai, you are loosing money.

With enough water and labor you can intercrop anything, the question was; is it practical? Definitely no.

Ps we grow a lot of cassava and occasionally peanuts.

How i know the peanuts are ready to take out? Because i think in my case i waited to long.

And after peanuts. What to plant between the cassava? Or let it be like this for 9 Month? But this i will call ist wasting space.