Traditionally, mixed farming is an agricultural practice that involves both cultivating crops and raising livestock but mixed farming can also include unconventional agricultural techniques. Crop-livestock farming is carried out in many countries and is usually meant for domestic utilization. Certain countries like the USA, however, use mixed farming practices for internal and cross-border business as well. Some of the major types of mixed farming techniques have been listed below:
1. Multi-agriculture:
Mixed crop or multi-cropping is an agricultural practice common to horticulture where farmers focus on harvesting at least two yields on similar agricultural land within the same developing season. If separate yields are developed simultaneously, the practice is known as intercropping in mixed farming. One of the major benefits of mixed farming such as these is that it helps farmers multiply their harvest efficiency which translates to better agricultural pay.
2. Shifting agriculture and crop rotation:
Crop rotation is a form of mixed agriculture where a number of different crops are harvested consecutively on similar or the same piece of land to maintain soil integrity, nutrient binding and weed pressure in the farmland. Shifting agriculture, on the other hand, works on a similar premise but in this case, cultivation plots are developed quickly and left unattended after harvest where natural/wild vegetation grow unreservedly while farmers ‘shift’ to another farming plot.
3. Subsistence and intensive farming: .
Intensive farming, as the name suggests, is a type of mixed farming of both crops and livestock that is characterized by higher levels of input and output per unit area of farmland. Intensive farming is used to optimize harvest and maximize yields from the available land. Subsistence farming also works on the principle of optimizing cultivation but in subsistence farming, crops are grown and cattle are reared to primarily fulfill the needs of the farmers themselves, their families, and smallholdings with little or no surplus.
4. Plantation farming:
Even though a type of mixed farming, plantation agriculture is a little different from the farming types mentioned above because it focuses on a single yield, mostly for the purpose of business, that is developed all year long. Plantation agriculture is not only labor intensive but it also requires a huge amount of capital to get started.
Mixed farming is extremely beneficial to farmers, especially in regions that suffer from sporadic seasons. Cultivating mixed crops preserves farmland integrity and becomes a source of persistent pay for farmers, in-between harvesting cycles. Moreover, if yields fail, they can rely upon animal husbandry to manage expenses on the farm.