Role of Intercropping some Aromatic and Medicinal Plants with Fruit Vegetables Crops, a Review

Abstract

Crop diversification, need to maintain current levels of cropped area for food and other uses have made use of intercropping important. The trap nature of medicinal aromatic plants and has a great role for vegetable crops important for protecting damage of fruits from insect pest attack, extend the shelf life of it, maintain the quality during transportation to market like African marigold. Intercropping of medicinal and aromatic plants with different horticultural plants has a great role reducing the post-harvest yield loss, maintain the quality of fruits and increase its shelf life in storage. The aromatic nature and essential oil of MAPs enables to protect soil borne nematodes; they also protect these nematodes diseases by suppressing its adventus root system. The presence of other crops in intercropping the volatile oil is reduced because of shade. However, shading of the component crops has a negative effect on essential growth, biomass yield, oil content, composition and quality oil of MAPs. Medicinal aromatic plants are also significantly increase soil organic nitrogen, soil water content, decreased pH values and available nitrogen content. Intercropping of MAPs with other crops offers congenial conditions which it results the improvement in resource use efficiency in terms of productivity and net return per unit area.

Weeds and compacted soil in the establishment of an urban garden using the biointensive approach: Experiences and limitations

“…An ideal scenario is described by Torres Sanabria and Cuartas Ricaurte (2013), who mention that the pre-Columbian cultures of the Amazon transformed low-fertility soils into highly productive anthropic soils called Tierras prietas. One of the numerous examples of soil conditioning is the use of aromatic plants that improve soil conditions such as pH and organic carbon availability (Dikr, 2022).…”

Intercropping Perennial Fruit Trees and Annual Field Crops with Aromatic and Medicinal Plants (MAPs) in the Mediterranean Basin

“…Sustainable agricultural advantages of MAP cultivation include, improved soil health (soil organic nitrogen and carbon, soil water content, microbial activity and biomass), bio-pesticide and bio-herbicide control by allelopathic secondary metabolites, adaptability to diverse ecological conditions, including semi-arid conditions, with an added advantage to farmer profitability (essentials oil with high economic value) [41][42][43][44][45]. The potential benefits of intercropping with MAPs have been highlighted from studies, conducted mostly on vegetable crops, which have been subject to various reviews [42,43,46,47]. From these latter reviews, as well as from emerging MAP intercropping studies widely available on internet search engines, environmentally sustainable benefits of native MB MAPs have ironically been published in countries that are predominantly located outside the MB, such as China, India and Iran (major producers of MAPs), as well as parts of Africa [43,45,47,48].…”

“…The potential benefits of intercropping with MAPs have been highlighted from studies, conducted mostly on vegetable crops, which have been subject to various reviews [42,43,46,47]. From these latter reviews, as well as from emerging MAP intercropping studies widely available on internet search engines, environmentally sustainable benefits of native MB MAPs have ironically been published in countries that are predominantly located outside the MB, such as China, India and Iran (major producers of MAPs), as well as parts of Africa [43,45,47,48]. To address desirable sustainable agriculture policy objectives in the MB such as improvements to soil quality and biodiversity [6], as well as to take into consideration climate change and unsustainable management risks to the MB, the present study aims to review published literature from 2003 to 2023 on intercropping perennial nut and fruit crops, as well as annual field crops, with native MB MAPs within the MB.…”