Sugarcane based intercropping system and its effect on cane yield

World population is growing exponentially and there is a need to fulfil its’ food requirements. An important strategy for increasing labour utilization per unit area of available land and productivity is to intensify land use. Intercropping, the agricultural practice of cultivating two or more crops in the same space at the same time, is an old and commonly used cropping practice which aims to match efficiently crop demands to the available growth resources and labour. The most common advantage of intercropping is the production of greater yield on a given piece of land by making more efficient use of the available growth resources. Sugarcane is a long duration crop and takes about 90-120 days for canopy development, which allows for growing intercrops during the early stage. Taking advantage of this, sugarcane cultivators grow various short duration crops like pulses, vegetables, etc. as intercrops to get interim return since small sugarcane growers cannot wait for a long time to get financial return from sole sugarcane crop. Since sugarcane is an important commercial crop all over the world and is most suitable for intercropping, this review focuses on sugarcane based intercropping system.