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The Rediscovery of Intercropping in China: A Traditional Cropping System for Future Chinese Agriculture – A Review

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Climate Change, Intercropping, Pest Control and Beneficial Microorganisms

Part of the book series: Sustainable Agriculture Reviews ((SARV,volume 2))

Abstract

Intercropping has a 1000-year old history in Chinese agriculture and is still widespread in modern Chinese agriculture. Nowadays, agricultural systems in China are stigmatized to exhaust high levels of input factors like N fertilizer or irrigation water and to contribute severely to environmental problems like desertification, river eutrophication, soil degradation and greenhouse effect. In this context, monocropping systems have to be revised and may not be the best performing systems any more, considering sustainability, income security and nutritional diversity in rural areas. Therefore, intercropping systems offer alternatives for a more sustainable agriculture with reduced input and stabilized yield. Especially in the last decade this cropping system has been rediscovered by scientific research. Studies showed increased yield of maize and wheat intercropped with legumes: chickpea facilitates P uptake by associated wheat, maize intercropped with peanut improves iron nutrition and faba bean enhances N uptake when intercropped with maize. China’s intercropping area is the largest in the world. Nevertheless, there are only few international studies dealing with intercropping distribution, patterns and crops. Most studies deal with nutrient-use efficiency and availability. This study is a first approach to gain an overview of intercropping history, basic factors about interspecific facilitation and competition and distribution of Chinese intercropping systems. Finally, four intercropping regions can be distinguished and are explicitly described with their intercropping intensity, potential and conditions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors’ research topic is embedded in the International Research Training Group of the University of Hohenheim and China Agricultural University, entitled “Modeling Material Flows and Production Systems for Sustainable Resource Use in the North China Plain”. We thank the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) of the People’s Republic of China for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Crop Production and Grassland Research University of Hohenheim, Fruwirthstrasse 23, 70593, Stuttgart, Germany

    Heike Knörzer, Simone Graeff-Hönninger & Wilhelm Claupein

  2. Department of Agronomy, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural, University, No. 2 West Yuan Ming Yuan Road, 100094, Beijing, China

    Buqing Guo & Pu Wang

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  1. Heike Knörzer
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  2. Simone Graeff-Hönninger
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  3. Buqing Guo
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  4. Pu Wang
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  5. Wilhelm Claupein
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Correspondence to Heike Knörzer .

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  1. INRA-CMSE-PME, rue Sully 17, Dijon CX, 21065, France

    Eric Lichtfouse

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Knörzer, H., Graeff-Hönninger, S., Guo, B., Wang, P., Claupein, W. (2009). The Rediscovery of Intercropping in China: A Traditional Cropping System for Future Chinese Agriculture – A Review. In: Lichtfouse, E. (eds) Climate Change, Intercropping, Pest Control and Beneficial Microorganisms. Sustainable Agriculture Reviews, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2716-0_3

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