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Cashew (Anacardium occidentale), a native of Brazil, was introduced in India during the latter half of the 16th century for the purpose of afforestation and soil conservation. Initially intercropping received little attention in the cashew. But Inter-cropping has become popular with the systematic establishment of large-scale orchards. It is practiced in the first few years (4-5 years) when there is sufficient space between crop rows with the main objective of deriving some income until the cashew starts giving economic returns. Tall growing inter-crops like certain varieties of sorghum and millet should not be encouraged between young cashews, as they provide too much shade. Avoid plants that may host pests and diseases of cashew. Depending on soil and climatic conditions and local situations annual crops like tapioca, pulses, turmeric, ginger, yam, maize, etc., can be grown as inter crops. Leguminous crops such as groundnuts, horse gram, cowpea and beans are very suitable for inter cropping. Besides the annual crops, the arid zone fruit crops having less canopy especially anona, phalsa, etc., can be thought of, depending on the suitability. Casuarina is also a tree inter-crop planted at a spacing of 1.5x1.5 m in cashew orchards in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. In the west Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, cashew is grown in combination with casuarina and coconut. In Kerala and coastal Karnataka, pineapple is grown as a biennial crop in the initial 4-5 years and farmers find it far more profitable than crops such as red gram and cassava. When hedge-row planting at a spacing of 5x10 m is used, inter-crops of acacia, casuarinas, etc. are taken without any ill-effects on the main crop. These trees are planted about 3.5 m away from the cashew in two-row plots spaced 1x1 m apart in the center of crop avenues. When once the plants become sufficiently big pepper can be taken as mixed crop. So considering the long pre-bearing period, low income in the early period of bearing, fluctuations in the yield and price from year to year it is recommended to take up inter-cropping in cashew plantations.