Special Classification of Crops

1. Arable Crops:- Such crops which requires preparatory tillage e.g. potato, tobacco, rice, sugarcane, maize etc.

2. Alley Crops:- Such arable crops which are grown in alleys/passages formed by trees or shrubs, established mainly for enhance soil productivity and reduce soil erosion e.g. Arable crops like sweet potato, urd, turmeric & ginger are grown passages.

3. Augmenting Crops:- Such crops are sown to supplement the yield of the main crops e.g. Japanese Mustard with Berseem, Chinese cabbage with Mustard. Here Japanese Mustard and Chinese cabbage help to increase yield in first cutting.

4. Avenue Crops:- Such crops are grown along farm road and fences. E.g. Arhar, Glyricidia, Sisal etc.

5. Border crops/Barrier/Guard crops:- Such crops which helps to protect another crops from trespassing of animals or restrict the speed of wind and are mainly grown as border e.g. safflower (Thorny oilseed crops) are planted around the field of Chickpea.

6. Cash Crops:- Such crops are grown for sale to earn hard cash or those crops which farmers can’t process at their level. E.g. Jute, Cotton, Tobacco, Sugarcane.

7. Brake Crops:- Such crops which are grown for to break the continuity of agro-ecological situation of the field and to reduce the inoculum of soil borne harmful biotic agents as weeds, pests and improve soil condition for crop growth. E.g. Legumes

8. Cleaning crops:- Such crops whose agronomical practices makes the field clean e.g. Potato, maize etc.

9. Catch/Contingent/Emergency crops:- Such crops are cultivated to catch the forthcoming season when main crop is failed. They are of very short duration, quick growing, fast bulking, harvestable or usable at any time e.g. Greengram, urd, cowpea, onion, radish etc.

10. Contour Crops:- Such crops grown on or along the contour lines to protect the land form erosion e.g. marvel grass etc.

11. Cole crops:- ‘Cole’ is derived from colewart. Colewart is the ancestor of wild cabbage. These crops are cold season crops and belonging cruciferae. E.g. cabbage, Cauliflower and brussels sprouts etc.

12. Commercial crops:- Such crops which are grown by farmers for their income and earn money. E.g. Jute, Cotton, Tobacco, Sugarcane. Cash crops are certainly commercial crops.

13. Cover crops:- Such crops which are able to protect soil surface from soil erosion through their ground covering foliage or root mates e.g. Cowpea, Groundnut, urd, paragrass, Sweet potato.

14. Complementary Crops:- Those crops which benefited each other in intercropping e.g. Jowar+Cowpea. Jowar receives nitrogen from cowpea and cowpea receives support from Jowar.

15. Competitive Crops:- Such crops which compete to each other in various ways and are not suitable for intercropping. E.g. two cereals.

16. Supplementary Crops:- Such crop which neither competitive nor complementary. Each crops grows independently and have not any type of effect on each other. E.g. Maize+cucurbits

17. Exhaustive Crops:- Such crops leave the field exhaustive after harvesting and those crops are heavy nutrient feeder crops. E.g. cereals

18. Energy crops:- Such crops which are grown to obtain liquid energy such as ethenol and alcohol e.g. sugarcane, potato, maize etc.

19. Fouling crops:- Such crops whose cultural practices allow the infestation of weeds intensively e.g. Direct seeded upland rice etc.

20. Ley crops:- Such crops or combination of crops which ids grown for grazing or harvesting for immediate or grown for future feeding to livestock e.g. Berseem +Mustard and pastures, grassland etc.

21. Mulch Crops:- Such crops; which are grown for conserve soil moisture, reduce soil erosion, maintain soil temperature and prevent weed infestation; are called Mulch crops e.g. cowpea etc.

22. Nurse crops:- Such crops help in the nourishment of other crops by providing shade and acting as climbing sticks e.g. Rye in Pea and Jowar in Cowpea.

23. Paira/Utera crops:- Growing of such crops sown a few days or weeks before harvesting of standing mature crops is called paira/utera cropping e.g. Lathyrus in Rice.

24. Paired row cropping:- Each third row is removed or growing of crops in paired row cropping. It is suitable for dryland and objective is to conserve soil moisture.

25. Restorative Crops:- Such crops provide a good harvest along with enrichment or restoration or amelioration of soil e.g. Legumes.

26. Riparian Crops:- Such crops whose are grown along irrigation and drainage channels or waterbodies e.g. Waterbind weeds (Kalmi sak), Pargrass. They helps to protect the soil from erosion.

27. Skip Cropping:- A line is left unsown in the regular row series of sowing or planting is called skip cropping.

28. Silage Crops:- Such crops are grown to preserve in pits in a succulent condition by a process of natural fermentation or acidification for feeding livestock during off-season months for forages e.g. Cowpea, Jowar.

29. Smother crops:- Such crops which are able to smother (Suppress) the population and growth of weeds by providing dense foliage and quick growing ability e.g. Cowpea, Mustard etc.

30. Soiling crops:- Such crops which are grown for harvest at their green condition and feed fresh to livestock in stalls e.g. berseem, napier etc.

31. Trap crops:- Such crops which are grown for trap to insect-pests and soil-borne harmful biotic agents such as paarsitic weeds e.g. Cotton red bug is trapped by growing Okra around the cotton and Orobanche is trapped by Solnaceous plants and striga by sorghum.

32. Truck crops:- Such crops which are grown at commercial level for supplying the produce to the big markets. E.g. Okra, Spinach etc.

33. Ware crops:- Such crops which are grown at commercial level and for temporary storing as intact in warehouses for future use or sale e.g. Potato, Onion etc.

Note:- All the pictures included in the blog have been taken from the various internet sources. All the right of the pictures are secured to their owners. Pictures are only used here for the fair use of content for educatioal purpose. 

Thank you

Vikas Kashyap

readagriculture.blogspot.com