Difference between Cropping Pattern and Cropping System

Cropping Pattern	Cropping System
Includes crop rotation practiced by a majority of farmers in a given area or locality.	Includes cropping pattern and its management to derive benefits from a given resource base under specific environmental conditions.
Type and management of crops in time and space.	The cropping patterns used on a farm and their interaction with farm resources, other farm enterprises and available technology which determine their make-up.
Yearly sequence and spatial arrangement of crops or crops and fallow on a given area. The proportion of area under various crops at a point of time in a unit area	Pattern of crops taken up for a given piece of land, or order in which crops are cultivated on a piece of land over a fixed period, associated with soil, management practices such as tillage manuring and irrigation
The two concepts are, however, overlapping, in various ways.

1.2. Significance of Cropping System

All around the world, different variations are adopted in agriculture. Each variation/ combination has some unique associated benefits which will be discussed later. However, these variations have some common associated benefits, like:

• Maintain and enhance soil fertility: Growing of different crops such as nitrogen fixing leguminous crops enhance the nitrogen content of soil. Growing of perennial forages and millets help to enhance soil organic content.

• Minimize spread of diseases: It encourages biodiversity by providing a habitat for a variety of insects and soil organisms. Some of them may act as predator for the certain diseases, thus limiting the outbreaks of diseases.

• Inhibit pest and insect growth: It reduces the homogeneity of farm. This heterogeneity increases the barriers against biological dispersal of pests in the field.

• Control weed: It reduces the likelihood that specific weed species will become adapted to the system and become problematic. For example rotation of crops is the most effective means yet devised for keeping land free of weeds.

• Use resources more effectively: Multiple activities, if scientifically planned, lead to better usage of resources, For example, fodder crops can be used for livestock feed, animal dung can be used as organic manure and dairy products helps to enhance farmers income.

• Reduce risk for crop failure: Different crops have different response to the climate vagaries and varied degree of susceptibility to disease attack. Due to such heterogeneity, the risk of total crop failure is reduced.

Crop diversification refers to the addition of new crops or cropping systems to agricultural production on a particular farm taking into account the different returns from value-added crops with complementary marketing opportunities

• Improved food and financial security: By reducing the risk of crop failure & diversifying the income opportunities for the famers, scientifically designed cropping system improves food and financial security.