CROP ROTATIONS class 4th

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Who is the most far-sighted of the two farmers? 
Laura, of course!
So, now it is clear why growing different crops over long periods is so important. If you want to maintain the soil health you must rely on crop rotation.

The following information is taken  from: https://www.britannica.com

Crop Rotation systems

It's the sequence of crops grown over a period of time on a given area of soil. It can be defined as the cropping system. It may be a pattern of regular rotation of different crops or one of growing only one crop year after year on the same area.

The advantages of crop rotations 

Such a system generally 

1. maintains productivity, 
2. aids in keeping soil structure favourable, 
3. and tends to reduce erosion. 
4. Alfalfa, sweet clover, red clover, and Ladino clover are considered effective for building up nitrogen. 
5. Legumes leave nitrogen in the soil.

Getting deeper it can be said that the AGRONOMIC BENEFITS of using crop rotation in agriculture are:

• the soil is enriched with nutritional substances and nitrogen.
• the soil structure is improved and preserved, reducing soil erosion
• the cycles of pests and diseases are interrupted. Thanks to crop rotation, the dangerous consequences of weeds, insects and pests are played down.

Moreover, crop rotation has the great environmental benefit of reducing soil erosion. Many areas are preserved from landslides, floods, mud slidings.

In the past, the Two-field system was the basis of the agricultural organization in Europe and the Middle East in early times. Arable land was divided into two fields or groups of fields; one group was planted to wheat, barley, or rye, while the other was allowed to lie fallow until the next planting season to recover its fertility. After cropping the first group of fields was turned to fallow, with the livestock permitted to graze on the stubble and enrich the soil with their droppings. Beginning about the 8th century, between the Loire and the Rhine rivers, the two-field system gave way to the more sophisticated three-field system.

Three-field system is a method of agricultural organization introduced in Europe in the Middle Ages and representing a decisive advance in production techniques. In the old two-field system half the land was sown to crop and half left fallow each season; in the three-field system, however, only a third of the land lay fallow. In the autumn one third was planted to wheat, barley, or rye, and in the spring another third of the land was planted to oats, barley, and legumes to be harvested in late summer. The legumes (peas and beans) strengthened the soil by their nitrogen-fixing ability and at the same time improved the human diet.