Crop Rotation

Crop rotation is an agronomic practice that provides soil conservation, in addition to controlling diseases, pests, and weeds in agricultural areas. This practice consists of alternating, in a planned way, the cultivation of different plant species on the same land, and in different agricultural years. In other words, if that year was cultivated in an area, in the next agricultural year in that area another plant species must be cultivated, or this cannot be considered crop rotation. The defined plant species must provide benefits such as agricultural production, and biomass production to improve soil characteristics. With this rotation of species in the same area, benefits can be obtained in the control of plant pests, and diseases due to the difference in the preference of host plants. In addition, the active principles of insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides are alternated, providing greater efficiency for these products. Monoculture - single species cultivated in large areas for several agricultural years - or crop succession (sequence of two plant species in the same agricultural year, such as soybean, and corn in the long term, provide physical degradation, chemical, and biological soil. Additionally, these forms of cultivation (monoculture, and crop succession) provide a reduction in crop productivity, as they favor the development of pests, diseases, and weeds.