Crop rotation

Crop rotation is the practice of growing different crops in succession on the same piece of land. Crop roation is a key strategy for reducing pests and disease in the soil and for managing fertility through the use of legumes and other nitrogen fixing plants. Crop rotation may also be practiced to maximize the growing season, for example, by planting an early spring crop which is harvested in time to plant a fall crop.

Crop rotations of traditional East Asian agriculture

In his masterful 1911 book, Farmers of Forty Centuries: Or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan, Soil scientist Franklin Hiram King recorded several crop rotations in use in the traditional agriculture of the Far East.

"In Chekiang province there may be a crop of rape, of wheat or barley or of windsor beans or clover which is followed in midsummer by another of cotton or of rice"