Agroforestry, intercropping or grass barriers have a great potential to enhance cropping system’s productivity and work as a
source of soil conservation on hilly terrain. These soil conservation cropping methods comprise of complex interactions
between plant, soil and atmosphere. Sustainability of such cropping systems can be assessed by measuring resources use
limitations, above ground biomass production (AGB) and Land Equivalent Ratio (LER). Modeling is an alternate approach to
assess such cropping systems sustainability. Water, Nutrient and Light Capture in Agro-forestry System (WaNuLCAS) model
was used to investigate the sustainability of various soil conservation maize-based cropping systems and to figure out some
mitigation strategies to overcome the resources limitation in-case of competition. A two years field experiment (2010, 2011)
with maize alone (monocropping, tillage), maize intercropping with chili and hedgerow with and without fertilization and
minimum tillage were used to assess the sustainability of these studied cropping systems on uplands of Thailand. The results
revealed that maize AGB was maximum 1.8 g m-2 in intercropping treatment of maize intercropping with chili and hedgerow
including fertilizer application and minimum tillage. LER also showed that maize intercropping with chili and hedgerow
including fertilizer application and minimum tillage used the resources judiciously to produce higher quantity of maize
biomass. Model suggested that small but targeted amount of additional nitrogen and phosphorous application overcome
nutrient limitation and sustain productivity of cropping systems. Such management options are easy to practice under field
condition and can also be adopted by the local farmer’s for sustainable crop production in future.
