Wheat-mungbean crop rotation improves soil health and increases income on small farms in Uzbekistan

Abstract

Long-term adoption of cotton-wheat and wheat-wheat crop rotations is an important constraint to soil health in Central Asia. Crop diversification by including leguminous crops in crop rotation can help improve soil health due to atmospheric nitrogen fixation into soil by the nodules present on roots. Besides, intensification of cropping system could increase farm income by utilizing fallow season in the crop rotation through cultivation of a short duration crop variety. Besides including in crop rotation, mungbean can also be planted as a short duration catch crop for multiple purpose (Figure 1). While early maturing wheat varieties are available, the widely grown varieties of mungbean are long duration maturing in more than 4 months. Recently mungbean varieties maturing in 70 to 110 days have become available for cultivation. Therefore, it is possible to successfully incorporate mungbean into cotton-wheat and wheat-wheat rotation.