Crop rotation
Topic: Land Reforms, the Green Revolution and Farm Subsidies · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Crop rotation means growing different crops in turn on the same land, for example cereals followed by legumes. Legumes such as gram add nitrogen to the soil, and changing crops breaks the life cycle of pests and diseases. It keeps soil fertile without heavy chemical use.
Example
Before the Green Revolution, many farmers grew a cereal in one season and a pulse in the next. In Punjab-Haryana, the repeated rice-wheat cycle replaced this rotation. The area under pulses shrank, and soils lost nutrients.
Don't confuse with
- Multiple cropping: this is about how many crops a field gives in one year. Crop rotation is about changing the type of crop over time. Rice followed by wheat every year is multiple cropping without real rotation.
- Monoculture: this means growing the same crop or crop cycle again and again, which is the opposite of rotation.
Related concepts
- Intercropping
- Mixed cropping
- Micro-irrigation
- Evergreen Revolution
- Second Green Revolution
- Gene Revolution
- Yield gap
- Precision farming
- Digital agriculture
- Custom hiring centre