Category: Gardening

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Crop rotation delivers higher yields, better nutrition, and increased farm revenues across six continents, study shows

An international study involving INRAE and coordinated by China Agriculture University has shown that the practice of crop rotation outperforms continuous monoculture in terms of yield, nutritional quality and farm revenues. The results, based on more than 3600 field observations from 738 experimental trials across six continents, have now been published in Nature Communications.

Although crop rotation is practiced widely in Europe, notably for the control of crop pests, diseases and invasive weeds, monocultures still dominate in Africa and Southern Asia. Elsewhere, continuous monocultures can still be popular, particularly soybean monocultures in regions such as South America where market demand for this agricultural staple is strong.

To support the transition of agricultural systems at a global scale, it is thus essential to quantify the costs, and benefits of crop rotations compared with monocultures, taking proper account of the particular characteristics of each of the world’s major agricultural regions. Despite the availability of much experimental data, no comprehensive synthetic and multi-criteria study of the impact of crop rotation has been conducted until now.

In this context, INRAE has been working as part of an international team, coordinated by China Agriculture University in Beijing, to collect and analyze a dataset of 3663 paired field trial observations drawn from 738 experiments between 1980 and 2024. Their goal was to quantify the impacts of crop rotation across three critical dimensions: yield performance (taking averages and variability into consideration), nutritional output (dietary energy, protein and micronutrients) and farm revenue.

Revenues rise by 20% with rotation

This multi-criterion meta-analysis has demonstrated that, looking at the entire rotational sequence and taking all crop combinations into account, the practice of rotational cropping increases total yields by 20% compared with that of continuous monoculture. The yield gain is a little greater when crop diversification includes legumes (such as peas, beans, clover, alfalfa) compared with a non-legume regime (+23% vs. +16%).

The results also point to less year-on-year yield variability in crop rotations compared with monocultures. Turning to nutritional value, the results show that the energy and protein content of the foods produced are 24% and 14% higher, respectively, for crop rotations. What is more, crop rotation increases micronutrient content such as iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg) and zinc (Zn) by 27%, 17% and 17% respectively. Last, the data show a rise, under controlled experimental conditions, of 20% in farm revenues for rotations compared with monocultures.

The study enables specific crops to be selected for rotation to suit the production contexts of the various major global agricultural regions. In Argentina and Brazil, soybean-maize rotation can increase calorie content by 118%, nutritional quality by 191% and revenue by 189% compared with continuous soybean monoculture. In Western and Southern Africa, these gains are respectively 94%, 91% and 89% for a sorghum-maize rotation compared with continuous maize monoculture.

These results underline the importance and benefits of crop rotation for the sustainability of agricultural systems. They also highlight the need to improve our understanding of existing barriers (farming practices, supply chain and market structure, etc.) to the adoption of the practice of crop rotation in some areas of the world.

More information: Shingirai Mudare et al, Crop rotations synergize yield, nutrition, and revenue: a meta-analysis, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64567-9

Journal information: Nature Communications

Finish reading: https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/self-sufficiency/crop-rotation-delivers-higher-yields-better-nutrition-and-increased-farm-revenues-across-six-continents-study-shows/

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Kill Your Lawn and Plant Native

Lawns Contribute To Flooding

Turf Grass has a place and a purpose … Sports fields, movie-night-in-the-park, a place for a dog to do their business but making mowed turfgrass the norm for both private residences as well as commercial properties and the margins of strip malls, retention ponds, highway embankments and all the other “nether regions” of human infrastructure is absolutely INSANE.

Even if you dislike plants or find them boring, using the native plants that evolved in your region as a “living machine” – to prevent flooding, prevent soil erosion, mitigate the effects of the urban heat island (through both evapotranspiratice cooling and shading the ground from the sun) – is just what makes practical sense.

Using native plants isn’t ‘environmentalism’, it is just ‘infrastructure*’ The plants that spent millions of years evolving in your region are naturally going to be best suited to helping the land stay alive and intact, as well as reducing the devastating effects of heat waves and flooding.

Encourage your local municipality to install natives along highway strips and around retention ponds and canals. It is just what makes sense.

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Keyhole Garden Bed

Keyhole Garden Bed

A keyhole garden is the ultimate sustainable method of growing your food. A keyhole garden should reduce the need for watering and feeding your plants.

It’s called a keyhole garden because from above it looks like the shape of a keyhole with the channel in the circular bed left to provide access to the permeable compost heap.

There are lots of variations of a Keyhole Bed, but this is how I do it.

Keyhole gardening originated in Lesotho, in Southern Africa for growing food crops. In regions where the soil was too impoverished to grow food, they created raised beds with a central, permeable compost.

The theory is that the compost leaches out into the soil, feeding plants and reducing the need for watering. It is called a keyhole garden because the raised bed is shaped like a keyhole, with a central walkway (cleft) which enables you to reach the compost heap in the centre.

Keyhole gardening is great for dry arid conditions and droughts and can be used to combat climate change. It is also useful for improving food security.

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Seedling Containers

Seedling Containers

I was just casually complaining about not having enough space for my seedlings… and next thing I know, my husband disappears into the garage, makes a bit of noise, and BOOM—comes back with THIS! 😲
An upcycled vertical garden made entirely from old water containers and scrap wood. It’s not just functional, it’s BRILLIANT.
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Permaculture Passion

Permaculture Passion

Ten years ago, I learned the truth about our food system and it broke my heart. But it also planted a seed that changed my life.

The Radical Garden is my current passion project, or maybe it’s more of a mission. A living, breathing response to the ecological crises we face and a personal act of resistance and regeneration.

I first learned about the scale of environmental destruction while studying at university in Wisconsin. Like many, I was shocked by the reality: climate change, deforestation, mass species loss and at the center of it all, the industrial food system. I felt overwhelmed, anxious, even hopeless. And perhaps worst of all, I felt I was participating in the problem every time I ate.
Alongside that despair at the same time, I discovered a lifeline. A solution so simple and powerful that it changed the course of my life: growing our own food. I joined a local community garden and began learning from my first mentor, Wes. From there, I dove into studying regenerative agriculture, working on organic farms, WWOOFing, and taking permaculture courses.

All of that has led to this: The Radical Garden.

A small-scale, regenerative garden (just 50 x 50 feet) designed to show what’s possible in a fraction of an average American lawn. This is a living experiment in what any family can grow and manage with intention and consistency.

It’s a closed-loop system, a soil-building, biodiversity-boosting, food-producing powerhouse. My goal is to generate at least 80% of the compost needed from within the system itself, and to grow enough food to feed myself and my partner year-round. (Honestly, I think it could feed more.)

But this isn’t just all about food. It’s about reclaiming power. Healing disconnection. Taking real, tangible steps toward a more regenerative way of living. My hope is to make this as replicable as possible to share with others.

The Radical Garden is really my simple message to the world. It’s where I turn eco-anxiety into action. It’s where I become the kind of person I believe the future needs.

And I hope it inspires you to do the same.