Crop rotation is one of the oldest and most effective cultural control strategies. It means the planned order of specific crops planted on the same field, it also means that the succeeding crop belongs to different family than the previous crop. The rotation may vary from 2 or 3 year or longer period. The main objective is to get maximum profit from least investment without impairing the soil fertility. Soil is the base for crop plant growth and development. Successful crop husbandry depends on the choice of right crop in the right soil. In deciding sequence of crops in a rotation, soil types, fertility and its health, crop rooting habit, inputs availability and their prices, agro-climatic and socioeconomic conditions of the farmer, farmers' skill and knowledge should be taken into consideration.
Useful tips in planning crop rotation: 1. Make a list of the crops you want to grow but taking into consideration the markets demand of your produce. 2. It is better to grow legumes before grains or cereals because legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil and add more organic matter to the soil. 3. The crops with tap roots should be followed by those which have fibrous root system, as this helps in proper and uniform use of nutrients from the soil. 4. Exhaustive crops should be followed by less exhaustive crops because exhaustive crops like potato, maize and sugarcane need more inputs such as better tillage, fertilizers and greater number of irrigations. 5. The crop of the same family should not be grown in succession because they act like alternate hosts for insects, pests and diseases. 6. Practice green manuring to maintain the soil fertility status. 7. On sloppy lands which are prone to erosion an alternate cropping of erosion promoting and erosion resisting crops like legumes should be adopted. 8. Always keep farm records.
Characteristics of good crop rotation: 1. It should be adoptable to the existing soil climate and economical factor. 2. It should be based on proper land utilization. 3. It should contain sufficient number of soil improving crops to maintain and build up organic matter content of the soil. 4. It should provide sufficient fodder for livestock reared on farm. 5. It should be so arranged so as to make economy in production and labour utilization. 6. It should be so arranged as to help in control of weeds, plant diseases and pests. 7. It should provide maximum area under most profitable cash crops adopted in the area.
Hannah Krujia SMS – Agronomy KVK, Phek Dist.
