An overview is given here of the annual production of a small scale Philippine polyculture farmer using every possible resource available to him, including vertical as well as horizontal space.

This production was accomplished without the use of any insecticides, hybrid seeds, irrigation or mechanical farm implements and only a small amount of chicken manure was used. Compared with the average production of small-scale rainfed rice/mungbean cultivation (1.3 tons/ha for traditional varieties; 1.4 tons/ha for hybrid cultivars) this is very high. Although these figures are not totally comparable they give a clear indication that polyculture greatly out produces its monocultural counterparts, even those with ‘Green Revolution’ inputs. Most cereal-legume based polycultures and agroforestry systems found throughout the tropics are examples of ‘overyielding’ polycultures.

Source : 'Return to the Good Earth', Third World Network

Click here to read about other techniques, practices and specialised forms of organic farming.

Pages on this website relevant to farm diversity, polyculture, integration and biodiversity :

Integration of systems

Crop rotation and polyculture