ABSTRACT
Polycropping is the concurrent growing of selected multiple crops at the same time and in the same place, with the respective crops being beneficial to each other. Traditional farmers all over the world have long favored biodiversity in their soils and fields for its contribution to long-term agricultural productivity by providing a degree of crop protection that is otherwise only available by purchasing and applying externally acquired, seasonal inputs. Traditional agriculture systems commonly combine the benefits of high productivity, low costs, biodiversity conservation, low energy inputs, and climate change mitigation. Planting a greater variety of crops together provides habitat for more and more varied species, supporting local biodiversity by creating more ecological niches for beneficial organisms such as parasitic wasps or predator insects that attack and reduce pests. Push-pull was designed to exploit natural processes and locally available bioresources to achieve substantial gains in factor productivity and in grain yield, with minimal reliance on external synthetic inputs.
