Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, India.
Cassava, a long season wide spaced crop is slow in its initial growth and development and therefore, intercropping of a short duration crop may increase the biological efficiency as a whole. Intercropping in cassava is a widely followed practice in the humid and sub-humid tropics. In Latin America and Africa, cassava is most commonly associated with an early maturing grain crop such as maize or legumes. Normally, green covers are planted with cassava for a variety of purposes such as cultural weed control, fertility management and moisture conservation and forage production. Results have shown that intercropping in cassa-va did not affect the growth and yield of tubers significantly, but increased the biological efficiency of the intercropping system as a whole by way of better nutrient efficiency and better weed control. Intercropping in cassava could also fetch additional income and since cassava being a wide spaced and initial slow growing crop, could provide ways to
