SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES: COVER CROPS

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By Isaiah Torkighir

In agriculture, cover crops are plants that are planted to cover the soil rather than for the purpose of being harvested. Cover crops manage soil erosion, soil fertility, soil quality, water, weeds, pests, diseases, biodiversity and wildlife in an agroecosystem—an ecological system managed and shaped by humans. Cover crops can increase microbial activity in the soil, which has a positive effect on nitrogen availability, nitrogen uptake in target crops, and crop yields. Cover crops reduce water pollution risks and remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Cover crops may be an off-season crop planted after harvesting the cash crop. Cover crops are nurse crops in that they increase the survival of the main crop being harvested, and are often grown over the winter.
In the United States, cover cropping may cost as much as $35 per acre.

BENEFITS OF COVER CROPS

  1. PREVENTION OF SOIL EROSION
    Although cover crops can perform multiple functions in an agroecosystem simultaneously, they are often grown for the sole purpose of preventing soil erosion.
    Soil erosion is a process that can irreparably reduce the productive capacity of an agroecosystem.
    Cover crops reduce soil loss by improving soil structure and increasing infiltration, protecting the soil surface, scattering raindrop energy, and reducing the velocity of the movement of water over the soil surface.
    Dense cover crop stands physically to slow down the velocity of rainfall before it contacts the soil surface, preventing soil splashing and erosive surface runoff.
    Additionally, vast cover crop root networks help anchor the soil in place and increase soil porosity, producing suitable habitat networks for soil macrofauna.
    It keeps the enrichment of the soil good for the next few years.
  2. SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT

One of the primary uses of cover crops is to increase soil fertility. These types of cover crops are referred to as “green manure”. They are used to manage a range of soil macronutrients and micronutrients. Of the various nutrients, the impact that cover crops have on nitrogen management has received the most attention from researchers and farmers because nitrogen is often the most limiting nutrient in crop production.
Often, green manure crops are grown for a specific period, and then plowed under before reaching full maturity to improve soil fertility and quality. The stalks left block the soil from being eroded.
Green manure crops are commonly leguminous, meaning they are part of the pea family, Fabaceae. This family is unique in that all of the species in it set pods, such as bean, lentil, lupins and alfalfa. Leguminous cover crops are typically high in nitrogen and can often provide the required quantity of nitrogen for crop production. In conventional farming, this nitrogen is typically applied in chemical fertilizer form. In organic farming, nitrogen inputs may take the form of organic fertilizers, compost, cover crop seed, and fixation by legume cover crops.[8] This quality of cover crops is called fertilizer replacement value.
Another quality unique to leguminous cover crops is that they form symbiotic relationships with the rhizobial bacteria that reside in legume root nodules. Lupins is nodulated by the soil microorganism Bradyrhizobium sp. (Lupinus). Bradyrhizobia are encountered as microsymbionts in other leguminous crops (Argyrolobium, Lotus, Ornithopus, Acacia, Lupinus) of Mediterranean origin. These bacteria convert biologically unavailable atmospheric nitrogen gas (N
2) to biologically available ammonium (NH+
4) through the process of biological nitrogen fixation. In general, cover crops increase soil microbial activity, which has a positive effect on nitrogen availability in the soil, nitrogen uptake in target crops, and crop yields.
Also,cover crops help in Nutrient Retention (The root systems of cover crops help to bind soil particles together, reducing nutrient leaching and promoting nutrient retention in the soil).

  1. WATER MANAGEMENT

By reducing soil erosion, cover crops often also reduce both the rate and quantity of water that drains off the field, which would normally pose environmental risks to waterways and ecosystems downstream.
Cover crop biomass acts as a physical barrier between rainfall and the soil surface, allowing raindrops to steadily trickle down through the soil profile.
Also, as stated above, cover crop root growth results in the formation of soil pores, which, in addition to enhancing soil macrofauna habitat provides pathways for water to filter through the soil profile rather than draining off the field as surface flow. With increased water infiltration, the potential for soil water storage and the recharge of aquifers can be improved.
Just before cover crops are killed (by such practices including mowing, tilling, discing, rolling, or herbicide application) they contain a large amount of moisture. When the cover crop is incorporated into the soil, or left on the soil surface, it often increases soil moisture. In agroecosystems where water for crop production is in short supply, cover crops can be used as a mulch to conserve water by shading and cooling the soil surface. This reduces the evaporation of soil moisture and helps preserve soil nutrients.

  1. PEST MANAGEMENT

Some cover crops are used as so-called “trap crops”, to attract pests away from the crop of value and toward what the pest sees as a more favorable habitat. Trap crop areas can be established within crops, within farms, or within landscapes. In many cases, the trap crop is grown during the same season as the food crop being produced. The limited area occupied by these trap crops can be treated with a pesticide once pests are drawn to the trap in large enough numbers to reduce pest populations. In some organic systems, farmers drive over the trap crop with a large vacuum-based implement to physically pull the pests off the plants and out of the field.

  1. WEED SUPPRESSION Many cover crops have allelopathic properties, which inhibit the growth of weeds, thus reducing the need for herbicides.
  2. ENHANCED SOIL STRUCTURE The organic matter from cover crops improves soil structure, making it more resilient to compaction and erosion.
  3. SOIL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
    Cover crops can also improve soil quality by increasing soil organic matter levels through the input of cover crop biomass over time. Increased soil organic matter enhances soil structure as well as the water and nutrient holding and buffering capacities of the soil.
  4. Disease management
  5. Biodiversity and wildlife

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