Crop Rotation

The strategy of crop rotation involves changing the type of crops that are planted in a given section of field each growing season. Farms in Ukraine employ a variety of crop-rotation schemes, some including four or more crops, some only two.

A six-year crop rotation in the winter grain region often includes two consecutive years of wheat and one season of "clean fallow," during which no crop is sown. The chief reason for including fallow in the rotation is to replenish soil-moisture reserves, and it is more widely used in south-eastern Ukraine where drought is not uncommon. A typical crop sequence might be: fallow, winter wheat, winter wheat, sunflowers, spring barley, and corn. Wheat almost always follows fallow. This enables the wheat - which is typically the priority crop - to benefit from the reduced weed infestation. Some crop rotations include several consecutive years of a forage crop. An example of such a rotation would be: fallow, two years of winter wheat, and four years of perennial forage. The perennial forage is usually alfalfa. Farmers get three to four cuttings per year, five if the crop is irrigated.

A typical seven-year rotation might be: winter wheat, winter barley, sugar beets, winter wheat, winter barley, sunflowers, and corn. The vast majority of field crops, including grains, sunflowers, and sugar beets, are not irrigated. Traditionally, irrigation is used only on forage crops and vegetables. Roughly 5 percent of grains and 10 percent of potatoes, vegetables, and forage crops are irrigated.

13. Find in the text the English equivalents to the terms: сівозміна, земля під паром, засмічення бур’янами, зрошення. Match each term with its definition given below.

1) _________ - the delivery of water to grow crops.

2) _________ - the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.

3) __________ - land left unseeded during a growing season.

4) __________ - the presence of a large number of unwanted plants in a field.