Sometimes mixed cropping can be a little too much when we ignore certain things 🌱, we are trying to utilize the small size of land that we've got by planting different crops on the same farm.
At first, it felt like a smart idea 🤔 but right now it is looking like I took a wrong step completely 🚫
The good side of mixed cropping
Mixed cropping is meant to be a survival tactic in places where we are trying so hard to get land for farming due to limited land spaces 🌾.
The idea is that if one fails, the other should fill that gap and produce something better 👍, and even if the three won't produce to the required standard, small from each side will fill the loss from one of them.
Another idea is that the same crops help each other 🤝. For instance, legumes improve the soil, so planting any other crop with the legumes' presence improves the soil, which in turn improves the crop.
Where things went wrong
The major issue is that I failed when it comes to proper planning and spacing, leaving the whole farm completely rough and dark 🌒.
It became difficult for sunlight to get to the potatoes and cassava that is basically underneath the guinea corn 🌽.
That's not all, the fact that underneath became dark made it a den for pests like rats 🐭, and the rest to feed on the tubers that are just coming up.
All in all, I think I went a little too far with my mixed cropping plan, and I will need to adjust some variables the next time I embark on it 🔄.