
Edition
Soil borne pathogens on Trojan hosts
By Jan ten Hoopen
The rotation of different crops in one field is one of the oldest agricultural management systems used to suppress pests and weeds, sustain soil fertility or improve soil structure. In its most primitive form it is even as old as agriculture. People would abandon exhausted soil, only to return after long periods of fallow in which forest or other natural vegetation had rehabilitated these soils. Gradually people found out how to use different crops and rotations to sustain fertility or other features of soil health.
(1) Market prices strongly influence this sector, with low prices for vegetables resulting in intensified production with fewer crops in the area Carolina now studies. In other regions the high prices of soy beans and wheat drive farmers to switch to the production of cash crops solely, whereas it was combined with animal husbandry and permanent grasses before.
Sources:
Kenneth D White 1970. Fallowing, Crop Rotation, and Crop Yields in Roman Times. Agricultural History 44 (3): 281-290
Brodie, B B and W F Mai 1989. Control of the Golden Nematode in the United States. Annual Review of Phytopathology 27: 443-461