Multicropping is one of the best ways to utilize land and also take advantage of complementary relationships between various plants. Some plants act as pest controllers, some as nitrogen fixers, some loosen up the soil, some just provide support to another...so the interdependence goes on..                                            

The picture on the left is an experiment that we did in quarter acre with having a mix of Banana, Tur, Arecanut, Drumstick, Alasandhe, Tomato and Water melon. Watering is done once in 7-8 days. The first crop to be harvested was Alasandhe (3-4 months), followed by Tur(6-7 months). Tomatoes started after 3 months and since the plants were never removed we continued to get about 10kgs of  tomato every week for almost 4 months.  Drumstick and water melon plants never thrived though...but we have seen pretty good protection from a particular crop loss, which is not possible in a monoculture. The tur plants and banana which provides good shade have ensured survival of arecanut one of the big challenges in the first year. Tur and Alasandhe being legumes have helped in nitrogen fixing.

After the first year, we now have planted Coffee and Arecanut between the tall banana plants. Banana plants are providing ample shade to both Coffee and Arecanut. Arecanut is almost 3 ft tall and Coffee which was planted in Dec'08 has already sprouted many new leaves.

Another combination that we experimented was with Radish, Carrot, Brinjal, Coriander, Chilli, Greens and Onion. Not all the vegetables thrived...but certainly despite  couple of vegetables not coming up, it was not a disaster as there was at least 2-3 vegetables which had thrived given a varied combination that we had chosen.