Crop rotation with legumes

Crop rotation is an agronomic practice that consists of the successive cultivation of different crops in a specified order on the same fields. In the past, legumes were commonly used as a biological and economic source of Nitrogen. Nowadays, Nitrogen-fixing legumes have been recovering as viable crops because of the increased cost of Nitrogen fertilizer and the need to develop more sustainable farming systems.

The crop rotation combines phases of legumes of different duration, in which Nitrogen is fixed and accumulates in the soil, followed by phases of cereal growing during which accumulated Nitrogen is extracted.