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The “Crop Rotation Practice Standard” for the National Organic Program under the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, section §205.205, states that Farmers are required to implement a crop rotation that maintains or builds soil organic matter, works to control pests, manages and conserves nutrients, and protects against erosion.
When a single crop is planted repeatedly in the same soil, insects and diseases that attack that crop are allowed to build up to unmanageable levels, greatly reducing the farmer's harvest. The most basic form of crop rotation is also the simplest: never plant the same thing in the same place twice.
Because of pests, disease and decreased soil nutrients, farmers are rotating their sweet potato plants as much as possible, which means using a field for sweet potato plants only once every 5 years, and not having the crop in the same field for two consecutive years. "Planting rice between two sweet potato crops have long been suggested."
Sustainability may also involve crop rotation. [127] Crop rotation and cover crops prevent soil erosion, by protecting topsoil from wind and water. [32] Effective crop rotation can reduce pest pressure on crops, provides weed control, reduces disease build up, and improves the efficiency of soil nutrients and nutrient cycling. [128]
[149] [150] At the same time, some farmers in Europe moved from a two field crop rotation to a three-field crop rotation in which one field of three was left fallow every year. This resulted in increased productivity and nutrition, as the change in rotations permitted nitrogen-fixing legumes such as peas, lentils and beans. [ 151 ]
By affecting the soil in different ways, crops in a rotation help to stabilise changes in the properties. Another consideration is that many agricultural pests are species-specific and so having a given species present in a field only some of the time helps to prevent populations of pests from growing. [6] The organisation of individual plants ...
A whole new "system of crop rotation, fertilization, transplanting, grafting, and irrigation" was swiftly and systematically put into place under a new legal framework of land ownership and tenancy. In her view, therefore, there was indeed an agricultural revolution in al-Andalus, but it consisted principally of new social institutions rather ...
While woody encroachment is a global phenomenon, it affects up to 45 million hectares of land in Namibia and there with an unusually large area [9] Causes for bush encroachment include both land management practices (e.g. overgrazing through high stocking rates and insufficient animal rotation, suppression of natural fires) and climate change ...