|  Imagine
that you are a farmer with a small plot of land. The
climate is semi arid with two rainy seasons. You have
no irrigation system, a limited supply of fertilizer,
and very little farming equipment. Your challenge is
to grow enough food on this land to feed your family
and to sell for money. How would you farm your land?
Traditionally, farmers would plant their crops waiting
for the rainy seasons. They would, for example, plant
cereal crops one season and legumes the next season.
This method of farming worked sometimes, but you’ve
heard of a farming technique that works better, most
of the time.
 After
asking around, you learned this new type of farming
allows farmers to plant and harvest crops all year round,
in the rainy season and the dry season. There is a community
organization that teaches it in the next village. You
go and learn that it is a good idea to plant corn and
legumes together. Corn requires a lot of nitrogen to
grow. Legumes fix nitrogen in the soil. So these two
plants together actually help each other! The method
of planting two or more crops together is called “intercropping.”
Many farmers in Africa use the intercropping method.
Intercropping has many benefits. Weeds can be reduced
when plants are grown close to the ground. Insect pests
can’t pick on one easy target and they don’t
like many of the selections of plants used in this method.
Plants used in intercropping have different heights,
ages and rooting patterns, so farmers can use small
areas of fertile soil with minimal competition among
the crops. The combination of crops used in intercropping
can provide a balanced diet. This is good news for you
and your family. You have more food that contains proper
nutrients and proteins.
Crops such as maize, sorghum, pigeonpeas, cowpeas, greengrams,
and groundnuts are most commonly used as intercrops
in Africa. The combination of crops used in this puzzle
is fruit trees, coffee trees, maize, and beans.
The Stand With Africa campaign helps
to support farmers with problems learn new skills such
as intercropping.
Directions for the puzzle:
Unscramble the pieces to make a picture.
Click on a tile to move it into the empty space.
Go
to Intercropping Puzzle.
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