summer fallowing advantages and disadvantages

How does summer fallow damage the soil?

The burial of crop residue associated with the use of tillage to control weeds leaves the soil more exposed to wind and water erosion, and increases organic matter loss. ... Under wet conditions, fallow can contribute to increased leaching of water below the root zone and increased surface water runoff.

What does summer fallow mean?

Summer fallow, sometimes called fallow cropland, is cropland that is purposely kept out of production during a regular growing season. Resting the ground in this manner allows one crop to be grown using the moisture and nutrients of more than one crop cycle.

What is fallow period?

: a period in which a writer does no writing.

Why do farmers fallow?

Fallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left without sowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and store organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting the lifecycles of pathogens by temporarily removing their hosts.

How is field fallow helpful in replenishing the soil?

When we leave the field undisturbed without growing any crop on it, a lot of humus grow in it along with soil bacteria. This way soil becomes rich in nutrients. Thus, vitality of the soil is regained for the next crop. This way field fallow helps in replenishing the soil.

How do you make fallow soil?

Fallow ground, or fallow soil, is simply ground or soil which has been left unplanted for a period of time. In other words, fallow land is land left to rest and regenerate. A field, or several fields, are taken out of crop rotation for a specific period of time, usually one to five years, depending on crop.

What does the word fallow mean?

1 : usually cultivated land that is allowed to lie idle during the growing season. 2 obsolete : plowed land. 3 : the state or period of being fallow Summer fallow is effective for destroying weeds.

How can we save soil moisture?

These include spreading compost or animal manure, reducing tillage, green manuring and practicing good crop rotations. Crop residue is defined as the vegetative material left on the field after harvesting, pruning or processing. Crop residues left on the soil surface can conserve moisture by reducing evaporation.

What is non tillage?

No-till farming (also known as zero tillage or direct drilling) is an agricultural technique for growing crops or pasture without disturbing the soil through tillage. No-till farming decreases the amount of soil erosion tillage causes in certain soils, especially in sandy and dry soils on sloping terrain.

How is a fallow period important to the soil?

Type and length of fallow are also important for soil fertility restoration and improvement of soil properties. Five-year fallow fields recovered higher total porosity, macroporosity, and saturated hydraulic conductivity than fields with 2 years of fallow (Miranda et al 2009).

What is fallow soil?

Dryland farming is made possible mainly by the fallow system of farming, a practice dating from ancient times. Basically, the term fallow refers to land that is plowed and tilled but left unseeded during a growing season.

What is fallow in the Bible?

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary helps set the soil of our hearts as it explains “The expression, 'Break up your fallow ground' (Hos. 10:12; Jer. ... The cultivator of the soil was careful to 'break up' his fallow ground, i.e., to clear the field of weeds, before sowing seed in it.

Do farmers let their land rest?

Generally, resting winter farmland is part of crop rotation techniques, and a cover crop is often used to replenish the nutrients in the soil. However, some farmers let their winter farmland rest beyond just a season. Some let their fields lay fallow anywhere from a year to five years.

Why do farmers leave fields fallow?

'Fallow' periods were traditionally used by farmers to maintain the natural productivity of their land. The benefits of leaving land fallow for extended periods include rebalancing soil nutrients, re-establishing soil biota, breaking crop pest and disease cycles, and providing a haven for wildlife.

What is called fallow land?

Fallow land is all arable land either included in the crop rotation system or maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition (GAEC), whether worked or not, but which will not be harvested for the duration of a crop year. ... Fallow land may be: bare land with no crops at all.

Does field fallow add nutrients to the soil?

Field fallow: In this method, the land is left free or fallow for one or more seasons. This allows the land to naturally regain nutrients. Microbes decompose dead plants, animal waste and other organic material that get collected in the land. Thus, the soil regains the lost nutrients.

What are the three methods of replenishing the soil with nutrients?

A . Field fallow, crop rotation and mixed cropping are three natural methods of replenishing the nutrients of the soil. These natural methods are not enough and farmers have to resort to manures and fertilisers.

What does green manure mean?

Green manure is a cover crop sown on an agricultural plot in order to fertilize the soil for the following crop mainly through the intake of nitrogen. ... Green manure consists of legume-based cover crops. The green manure cover crops can be destructed through: A mechanical cultivation (grinding, cutting, landfill, etc).

Why should fallowing be followed?

Fallowing is the mode of preparing land, by ploughing it a considerable time and leaving the land unseeded. It should be followed as it helps in retaining moisture and nutrients in the soil. The retained nutrient benefits crop cultivation.

What is fallow field Class 8?

Field fallow- To increase the fertility of the soil is to leave the land without farming for a few seasons. The nutrients are replenished in the soil when dead animals and plants are decomposed by microbes. this process is called field fallow.

What is fallow land class 10th?

Fallow land is a piece of land that is normally used for farming but that is left with no crops on it for a season in order to let it recover its fertility.