@article{Gebremedhin:11690,
      recid = {11690},
      author = {Gebremedhin, Berhanu and Schwab, Gerald},
      title = {THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF CROP ROTATION SYSTEMS: EVIDENCE  FROM THE LITERATURE},
      address = {1998},
      number = {1099-2016-88971},
      series = {Staff Paper 98-13},
      pages = {30},
      year = {1998},
      abstract = {Agricultural sustainability requires that the individual  farm firm be competitive and profitable while  simultaneously enhancing environmental quality and the  natural resource base upon which the farm firm and  agricultural economy depends.  The reliance of conventional  agriculture systems on purchased inputs external to the  firm presents possible challenges to the long-term  sustainability of the system.  Crop rotation systems are  one cropping system alternative that can reduce  agriculture's dependence on external inputs through  internal nutrient recycling, maintenance of the long-term  productivity of the land, and breaking weed and disease  cycles.  Decision criteria to choose among competing crop  rotation systems can include impact on soil quality and  fertility, environmental quality, and farm profitability.   However, most of the comparative economic analysis work  reviewed for this paper considered only farm profitability  as a criterion to rank alternative crop rotation systems.   Most rotation research is focused around a target crop that  is the foundation for the crop rotation system.  When corn  is the target crop, comparative profitability performance  of continuous corn vs. corn grown in rotation showed that  neither system is consistently more profitable than  another.  Corn yield in Michigan does respond  favorably to  crop diversity.  Wheat as the target crop in rotation tends  to outperform continuous wheat both in terms of  profitability and income risk.  Sugar beet prices hold the  key in determining the profitability ranking of alternative  sugar beet-based crop rotations.  Potato in rotations tends  to outperform continuous potato both in terms of yield and  profitability.  Future studies addressing the economic  performance of crop rotations need to consider the  environmental benefits/costs  both on and off the farm site  that accrue to society.
Keywords:  Agricultural  sustainability, external inputs, soil quality and  fertility, environmental quality, crop rotations,  comparative economic analysis, farm profitability.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/11690},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.11690},
}