AGRICULTURE NEWS - Around the world, a growing number of farmers are switching to crop rotation due to its capacity to improve farm earnings through higher yield and reduced fertiliser, pesticide and herbicide usage, while boosting sustainability.
Long-term rotation trials by the Western Cape Department of Agriculture at the Langgewens Research Farm in the Swartland and Tygerhoek in the Southern Cape confirm this.
In crop rotation evaluations that started at Langgewens in 1996, wheat monoculture has always been the poorest performer of all the combinations under trial.
But in rotations that included at least one type of legume, such as lupines or medics, the average wheat yield was 30% higher than when wheat was produced in a monoculture. The yields of rotations containing no legumes were on average 12% higher.
Read the full article here on the Caxton publication, Farmer's Weekly.
