Wheat – Crop rotation
Benefits
- Boosts soil fertility by promoting nutrient cycling and improving soil structure, directly supporting wheat growth
- Breaks weed life cycles and reduces weed pressure, allowing the reduction of chemical herbicides
- Increases ecosystem services and resilience due to crop diversification
Risks
- Selection of wrong crops to rotate which may cause allelopathy and potentially inhibit wheat growth
- Crop failures and non-commercial interest for the rotational crops, especially if there is no established market
- Increased costs for new machinery and inputs if the selected crops are not traditional and compatible with existing practices-equipment
Tips
- Diversify rotations with nitrogen-fixing crops (e.g., legumes) to support the soil with nitrogen to be used by the wheat
- Select crops that maximize weed suppression by preventing weed germination/growth
- Make necessary adjustments to the rotation cycle to improve weed management and soil health