Basic knowledge in Agriculture #52

Hello Steemians 👋, it is the 52nd week ‘s agricultural contest and I am happy to have taken part. The guiding highlights are :

What do you understand by bush fallowing
Its advantages
Its disadvantages

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BUSH FALLOWING

One of the agricultural techniques used by large scale farmers is bush fallowing.
Bush fallowing is an agricultural technique which involves leaving and abandoning a piece of farmland for a while after cultivating on it.

To be more explicit, after a farmer is done cultivating and harvesting on a particular piece of farmland, he abadons it for a long period of time before he goes back to it.
The plot of farmland abandoned could be left alone for months or years.
Of course there is a reason for everything. Bush fallowing is with the aim of replenishing lost nutrients or gaining more nutrients needed by the soil to improve crop yield later on.

ADVANTAGES OF BUSH FALLOWING

The advantages and usefulness of bush fallowing is not centered around the replenishment of soil nutrients alone. It goes a long way which would be mentioned below.:
Nutrients improvement
Low cost of soil management
Reduced use of fertilizers
Reduced pest and diseases
Erosion control

Nutrients improvement:

This is practically the primary assignment of a fallowed farmland. After being abandoned for a while and left for bushes to grow on the farm, nutrients are renewed thereby improving crop yields.

Low cost of soil management:

Ofcourse, this method is one of the cheapest methods of soil and it's management. It practically involves buying anything but just leaving the piece of alone.

Reduced use of fertilizers:

To get enough soil nutrients to increase crop yield, farmers indulge in buying fertilizers that contain chemicals; this chemicals can also contain some harmful substances that kill soil microorganisms and unknowingly reduce soil quality.
Through bush fallowing, there is no use of fertilizers or any other form of chemicals.

Reduced pest and diseases:

Left with only dense bush, there is little to nothing that pests can infest and feed on. As time goes on, the pests and susceptibility to diseases drastically reduce; this the land is free from them.

Erosion control:

Through bush fallowing, the dense farmland is able to block and stop heavy flow of water or flooding which could wash away the soil surface. Erosion and leaching is controlled by this.

DISADVANTAGES OF BUSH FALLOWING

Of course everything has it disadvantage if it would have an advantage. Disadvantages of bush fallowing include:

1. Requires large piece of land as growing bushes is not plausible on a small land.
2. Slow regeneration of nutrients. It is a gradual process.
3. Intensive labor finally required during clearing of the bushes to begin cultivation on the fallowed farmland.

Thanks for reading.
Inviting @ sheryp @wlin @chillaw

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