Principles of crop rotation

1) The crops with tap roots should be followed by those which have fibrous root system. This helps in proper and uniform use of nutrients.

2) The leguminous crops should be grown after non-leguminous crops because legumes fix atmospheric N into soil and add more organic matter to the soil.

3) More exhaustive crops should be followed by less exhaustive crops because crops like potato, sugarcane, maize etc. need more inputs like better tillage, more fertilizer, greater number of irrigations etc. and the less exhaustive crops (different kinds of legumes) required less care and management and above-mentioned inputs.

4) Selection of the crops should be demand based. The crops, which are selected by the farmers should be liked his family members also and the final produce could be easily sold in the market in higher price.

5) The selection of the crops should be problem based.

6) The crop of the same family should not be grown in succession because they act like alternate hosts for insects, pests and diseases.

7) An ideal crop rotation is one which provides maximum employment to the family member as farm labor, the machine and equipment are efficiently used and all agricultural operations are done on time and simultaneously maintaining the soil productivity.

Advantages of crop rotation

a) Agricultural operations can be done in time

b) Maintenance of soil fertility

c) Pest control:

d)Proper utilization of resources

e) Higher yield