While the crop residues and fodder provide animal feed, the manure and litter of the livestock provide renewable sources of organic matter and plant nutrients. They help reduce dependence on inorganic chemical fertilizers and maintain soil health, resulting in a high degree of organic recycling. This helps to minimize pesticide pollution of the agricultural environment. The system is, by and large, environmentally clean and sustainable. By integrating the home garden with livestock, the cropping strategy is designed to meet fodder requirements as well.
Guinea grass is the most popular fodder crop grown in the interspaces of coconut.
It is grown on or along the inner sides of earthen contour bunds to meet the twin objectives of fodder production and soil conservation, exploiting the soil binding property of this grass. Most of the spices that are grown have several uses. Thus, the system exhibits considerable bioresource diversity, designed to meet the food, fodder, fuel, organic mulch, timber, and medical requirements of the households and to generate cash. Such diversity is deliberate, designed to allow harvesting throughout the year so that products of economic value are always available for household use or cash sale. This is made possible through the strategy of intensifying and integrating multi-storey cropping, agroforestry, and livestock rearing.