Small-scale farmers in West and Central Africa often intercrop yams with cereals and vegetables. In the United States it is often used as an intercrop. A possible solution to this would be to intercrop "Chloris gayana" with food crops. A common method to combat "E. saccharina" is to intercrop target plants with non-host plants. The majority of Latin American farmers continue to intercrop their maize, beans, and squash. In Ecuador, farmers intercrop mauka with maize to optimize soil structure for root development.