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Abstract
This paper deals with crop rotation as a method to pest control and soil fertility from an economic
point of view. In the past farmers created complex rotations to benefit from processes
like natural pest control, recycling of organics, pollination and water retention. Cropping orders
utilizing small fields to accommodate long lists of crop sequences were a major feature
of agriculture. Today we are faced with large fields and monoculture. Usually, attempts to
recognize economic benefits from rotation through modelling are meagre because of
complexity. We address the issue of complexity as well as spatial and dynamics aspects of
long run benefits by suggesting feasible types of modelling crop rotations (dynamic
optimization). A newly introduced transfer matrix shall delineate impacts of crop
compositions in period t to fertility of land in t+1. Categorizing different states of nature
(which have to be communicated in line with farmers’ knowledge of externalities) it can be
implemented into modern crop rotations.