Worried about the degrading condition of your field? Are you in search of ways to improve your soil health and increment in production? Do you think of practicing safe and ensured farming? Do you want to make extra income? Then possibly the best solution to all your quests is CROP ROTATION.
CONTENT
INTRODUCTION
ADVANTAGES
STEPS TO CROP ROTATION
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
TYPES OF CROP ROTATION PLANS
CHALLENGES
CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
Crop rotation is an organic farming system of growing different crops in succession in the same field . Every crop has something to take and something to give back to the soil. Crop rotation uses this ‘give and take relationship’ to replenish the field nutrients ultimately improving soil health.
With changing climatic conditions, deteriorating soil health, and day per day increase in food demand, we can't solely rely on monoculture (repeating cultivation of same crops with same pattern eg; wheat and rice cultivation).
Adopting crop rotation helps in the diversification of cultivation which helps in decreasing pressure on land and increasing production naturally.
Crop rotation helps farmers to keep in check their soil nutrients without wasting money on buying toxic chemical fertilizers. It also protects crops from pest attacks and the spread of soil-borne diseases.
ADVANTAGES
Restores the soil nutrients
Controls pest
Lessens the need for fertilizers and pesticides
Prevents spreading of soil-borne diseases
Reduces the risk of crop failure
STEPS TO CROP ROTATION
Keeping in mind your field's moisture content, soil type, nutrients availability, PH, Enlist all the plants that can be grown in your field.
CHOOSE A ROTATION PLAN
Divide your field into parts and form rotational groups of the plants( what plants you plan to grow in the field ).
Plan the area you are going to allot each rotation group . Suppose You have 1-hectare land, divide it into 4 areas of 250 square meters each. Look at this given picture for reference.
Finally grow your crops accordingly.
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
Grow plants of different families each season because pests attack the same family plus they have similar nutrients requirements so they dry up that soil nutrient.
Following crops in the same group are not planted in rotation.
Maintain the difference between heavy feeders and light feeders. Heavy feeders favor rich soil whereas light feeders give good yields in soil with low nutrients.
Roots like potato, carrot, radish will yield more foliage and less edible parts grew in very rich soil. So if your soil is high on nutrients, grow brassica such as cabbage, mustard, cauliflower followed by roots next season.
LEGUMES
Common beans, black bean, broad bean (Faba), cowpea, garbanzo, hyacinth bean, kidney bean, lintel, mungbean, peanut, pigeon pea, soybean.
BRASSICA (Leaf and fruit vegetables)
Broccoli, sprouts, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, mustard, radish, turnip, watercress.
ROOT CROPS
Sweet potato, yam, water chestnut, potato, radish, carrot
Do not grow potatoes across brassicas.
because they favor different soil PH.
Do not put vegetables that have no soil-borne disease in your rotational plan as they can be grown alongside plants in any free space.
COMMON ROTATION PLANS IN INDIA
Wheat is a rabi crop which is then followed by jowar , maize, cotton, and bajra.
Sugarcane - wheat in northern India.
Rice - wheat - jute in West Bengal
Growing quick catch crop after wheat is common in India
Green manure crop (lobia , moong ) after Kharif crop like rice.
TYPES OF CROP ROTATION PLANS
One year plan
a) legume -brassica
b) rice -wheat
c) maize-mustard
Two-year plan
Maize – Mustard-Sugarcane – Fenugreek
Maize – Potato- Sugarcane – Peas
3) Three-year plan
Cotton – Oat – Sugarcane – Peas – Maize – Wheat
Sugarcane - berseem
Similarly, you can form your own crop rotation plan.
CHALLANGES
Risky if not planned properly
Needs skill and knowledge
Do not give immediate benefits
CONCLUSION
Crop rotation is a sustainable agriculture practice that results in improved soil quality and structure. It helps in the effective and judicious use of land. Crop rotation is practiced keeping in mind all the necessities can really improve the condition of farmers to a great extent.
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