Pakistan does not have enough space to produce enough food. Combined farming can become one of the ways to solve the problem.
For example, we can talk about the parallel cultivation of wheat in a sugarcane field.
Reed grows quite slowly: it takes 120 days to sprout. And during this time, the wheat quite manages to go through its entire cycle, up to harvesting.
At the same time, wheat does not prevent reeds from growing, on the contrary: in its shade, it feels great, being protected from the sun, and weeds are much less worried: with such a dense “population” on the field, they literally have nowhere to grow.
In addition, wheat creates an optimal temperature for the cane.
In addition, organic residues remain on the field after grain harvesting, which can partially replace fertilizers.
As a result, the introduction of such technology can help to solve the problem of lack of acreage, as well as save money on the purchase of fertilizers.
In addition, this is an optimal crop rotation, since the same crop does not occupy the field for many years.
Pakistani agrarians are planning to go even further: now the issue of soybean sowing after the wheat has been harvested is being considered.
Numerous experiments are also being carried out with the joint sowing of corn, chickpeas, peas, cabbage, clover.
The problem is so massive that there is even a dedicated National Research Center for Intercropping Research (NRCI) operating in Pakistan. By the way, it largely borrows from the Chinese experience; for the first time, Chinese scientists wrote about such a technology of combined farming.
It is planned that if the technology is successfully implemented and works at full capacity, then Pakistan will be able to save millions of dollars on imports of products, in particular grains.
After all, it has already been calculated: if you sow wheat even on half of the fields that are currently used for sugar cane, then this will help to collect 70% of the wheat that is currently grown in the country from these fields.
What is preventing the widespread introduction of combined farming?
There are two main obstacles here.
— Lack of awareness among farmers about how to use this technology.
Pakistani scientists are trying to solve this issue by distributing specialized literature.
— Lack of necessary seeders and combines that can work on the field without damaging additional crops.
If Pakistan achieves significant success, then it is possible that other countries will actively use intercropping.
