Basic Knowledge in Agriculture #69

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What is Crop Rotation?

Crop rotation entails the regular application of assorted types of plants within a field and at a certain season. A farmer had also a possibility to replace the same crop with other crops (monocropping) with nitrogen-fixing legumes, cereals that required heavy feeding and deep-rooted vegetables. It is one approach that is directed towards replicating natural ecosystems in order to make the soil fertile and uptake of the nutrients equal.

Benefits and demerits of crop rotation?

One of the pillars of sustainable agricultural activity is crop rotation that bears a number of long-term benefits:

Soil Fertility Management: Soil plant diets are dissimilar. Corn depletes nitrogen, where adding soybean (legumes) fertilizers replenishes it to the ground during the fixation of nitrogen. This assists in the eradication of the use of expensive synthetic fertilizers.

• Pest and Disease Control: Some of the pests are host specific. This changes the cycle of insects and pathogens that would have otherwise an abode of permanency by changing the crop.

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Better Soil Structure: Deep root crops (e.g. carrots) need to be replaced with shallow root crops (e.g. lettuce), the latter will aerate the soil and eliminate compaction that will increase water infiltration.

Erosion Prevention: This can be explained by the fact that there are many types of root systems covering the soil hence top soils are not washed away during heavy rains.

What were the Troubles with the Difficulties?

Although it is more ecologically superior, crop rotation has not been an issue:

• Expertise level: The farmers should be aware about the types of crops, planting time and their profitability with the soil.

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