Growing Sources for Natural Colors Sustainably

By filling dead spaces and gaps, intercrops help prevent and control the growth of undesirable weeds. The environment’s nutrition then goes to the intercrops rather than the weeds. Intercrops also act as “cover crops” or plants that blanket bare spaces, with the hopes of deep root development to hold the soil in place and prevent erosion. With an intercropping farm strategy, the diversity of crops also prevents pests and diseases from spreading throughout a field. Thus, it’s very important to ensure the main crop and intercrops are not attracted to the same pests and diseases. Adequate spacing between crops also needs to be taken into consideration to allow for crop management activities including cultivation, fertilization, weeding, pruning, and harvesting. However, mechanization could be a limitation in intercropping systems, which is just fine in our color farms where there is an abundance of labor.

Sensient is happy to create new jobs in local farming communities across the globe.

Intercropping maximizes land for its full potential with minimum input. Instead of farmers deforesting lands to expand agricultural production, they can increase their productivity and local income through sustainable farming practices like intercropping or relay cropping.