Companion planting is an organic and ecological farming principle that involves planting several plants that are beneficial to each other in close proximity. The plants are supposed to aid each other in pest and disease control, uptake of nutrients, shading, pollination, catch crop, and as a sacrificial crop.
Intercropping involves growing two or many crops together in the same plot in close proximity with the aim of increasing yields. The main aim of inter cropping is to maximize yields in a small plot by utilizing all the resources which would not have been completely utilized by a single crop.
MOOF has the following sets of companion plants:
- Carrots and garlic – control carrot root fly
- Beans and fennel – control aphids in beans
- Broad bean and snow peas – control leaf miner from snow peas
- Maize and climbing beans- maize provides bean with a trellis for climbing
- Borage and straw berry-effective pollination of strawberries
- Hot Peppers and tomatoes- repels most pests invading tomatoes
- Geranium and kales – kales shade young geranium plants
- Nasturtiums with various vegetables eg tomatoes– control of nematodes
- Maize, Napier grass and desmodium – stem borer and Striga
