HELLO HIVE

Every day farmers all over the world continue to experiment with different crop combinations to increase and maximize yield, manage the fertile lands that they've got more effectively and increase soil fertility.

The most common method used to achieve that level of success is intercropping with several combinations either going well or going terribly wrong, now the fact that we have had terrible results doesn't stop us from trying because some of man's greatest inventions have come from man trying over and over again without giving up.

In this post I want us to explore what could actually go wrong if we farmers intercrop maize and potatoes together.

Shading issues

The most definite thing that could go wrong is the shading problems now, maize is a crop that grows tall, reaching heights of several feet while the potatoes on the other hand stay and crawl on the ground this difference in height means that the potatoes find itself overshadowed by the maize reducing it's needed access to sunlight.

Now the problem with this is that potatoes need sunlight for photosynthesis and for it to grow effectively and when the sunlight is blocked then it could lead to poor tuber development which negatively impacts harvest.

Harvesting difficulties for both crops

Maize is harvested above the ground while potatoes are harvested by digging the ground this disperity causes issues when intercropping these two.

The problem in this case is that in cases where harvesting of the potatoes is done before the maize and if the mechanical approach is used for the harvesting then significant damages are caused to the roots of the maize plant and if maize is harvested first then trampling of the potatoes also occurs so either way one plant is at risk here.

Different water requirements of both plants

While these two crops need regular watering the level of the water needed is different for both crops potatoes need consistently moist soil especially during tuber formation while maize on the other hand is more drought tolerant once it grows.

While intercropping offers lots of benefits some doubts come with it and the more a farmer isn't exposed to some of their needs as plants the greater the chances of mistakes happening.

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