Sustainable Farming: Cover Crops, Crop Rotation & More
Sustainable Farming Practices for Soil Health
When farmers plant trees, shrubs, and ground cover around the edges of their fields, they are using a strategy called “cover cropping.”
Land degradation has accelerated during the 20th and 21st centuries due to increasing and combined pressures of agricultural and livestock production (over-cultivation, overgrazing, forest conversion), urbanization, and extreme weather events such as droughts and storm surges, which salinate the land.
The practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons is known as “crop rotation.”
Cover crops and green manure are different ways to describe the same idea. This statement is TRUE.
Crops grown specifically for building and maintaining soil fertility and structure are examples of “green manure.”
“Keyline design” is a landscaping technique that maximizes the beneficial use of water resources on a piece of land.
Impact of Agricultural Practices on Soil
- Nutrients contained in the unused parts of harvested crops may not be put back into the soil.
- Synthetic fertilizers produced with the Haber-Bosch process may cause damage to different aspects of the environment.
- The addition of a mixture developed by Pius Floris to the soil may improve the number and quality of plants growing there.
- The idea of zero net soil degradation may help governments to be more aware of soil-related issues.
Understanding the Nitrogen Cycle and Soil Processes
- How nitrogen moves from the atmosphere to earth, through soils, and back to the atmosphere in an endless process: Fixation
- Soil that lacks sufficient nutrients to support plant growth: Nutrient-poor
- The process which converts nitrogen in the atmosphere into forms that plants can absorb through their root systems: Nitrogen cycle
- A process of increasing biomass generation in a water body caused by increasing concentrations of plant nutrients: Eutrophication
- The process of decomposition of organic matter by microorganisms to release nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, and other inorganic compounds that can be readily assimilated by plants: Mineralization
- Human activities such as agriculture, fossil fuel combustion, wastewater management, and industrial processes are increasing the amount of this: Nitrogen oxide
- Organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms: Decomposers
- The final process of the nitrogen cycle in which soil-dwelling bacteria convert nitrates back into nitrogen gas: Denitrification
Common Terms in Farming
- The number of plants we managed to grow last year in that space was higher than this year: Plant density
- It’s not the most precise way to plant a crop, but it works well for big areas: Broadcast seeding
- The soil acidity is not quite right. Let’s apply some more of that stuff we put on yesterday: Amendment
- Those weeds are getting out of control. Do you have any more of that solution we sprayed yesterday?: Herbicide
- It’s still too cold to plant the seeds. It’s only 23 degrees: Soil temperature
- I think the soil is a bit low on nutrients. I think we’d better put some more of that product you got yesterday: Fertilizer
- The conditions have been very dry recently, and this wind is blowing it in my eyes: Topsoil
- I can’t see any shoots growing in this field where we seeded the wheat: Emergence