Crop Rotation

Crop rotation

a) A soy bean field and b) a maize field. Crop rotation helps to restore nutrients in the soil.

Crop rotation is a farming method that is used to manage the nutrients in soil naturally. When the same crop is grown repeatedly in the same place, it eventually depletes the soil of specific nutrients. With crop rotation, one type of crop that depletes the soil of a particular kind of nutrient, is rotated with another type of crop which replaces the depleted nutrient. For example, legumes, like beans or peas, have nodules on their roots which contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These bacteria help ‘fix’ or change nitrogen into a soluble form. Legumes are therefore often alternated with plants requiring nitrogen, and soy beans can therefore be followed by maize.