WHAT IS CROP ROTATION ?

- November 09, 2018

CROP ROTATION

WHAT IS CROP ROTATION

Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area in sequenced seasons. It is done so that the soil of farms is not used for only one set of nutrients. It helps in reducing soil erosion and increases soil fertility and crop yield.

Crop rotation involves a variety of agricultural techniques, such as tillage, and the use of fertilizers and chemical pesticide. It also involves land improvement measures, such as irrigation, drainage and the application of chemicals for soil improvement.

Crop rotation also prevents plant diseases and pests by exchanging crops that may be susceptible to a particular diseases or pest with a crop that is not susceptible. For example, corn is affected by corn root worms, soybeans are not. The soybeans help suppress the pest so that the corn planted the following year will not be as adversely affected by it.

There is no limit to the number of crops in a rotation. Depending on the needs of the gardener, a large rotation schedule may be implemented and can include the rotation of animals feed crop like hay, clover or oats. The order in which crops and fallow succeed each other is called rotation, integrated optimally on a single farm, make up a crop rotation system.

HOW CROP ROTATION WORKS

Simply divide your growing space into a number of distinct areas, identify the crops you want to grow and then keep plants of the same type together in one area. Every year the plants grown in each given area are changed, so that each group (with its own requirements, habits, pests and diseases) can have the advantage of new ground.

Most crop rotation schemes tend to run for at least three or four years, as this is the number of years it takes for most soil-borne pests and diseases to decline to harmless levels. If your beds are divided into four groups, this means that members of each plant family won’t occupy the same spot more than once in a four-year period. It recommends that you divide crops into four main groups as follows: Legumes (bush beans, peas, pole beans, broad beans); root vegetables(radish, carrot, potato, onion, garlic, beet, sweet potato)); leafy greens (spinach, cabbage, broccoli, spinach); and fruit-bearing(tomato, sweetcorn, cucumber, pumpkin).