Fallow . It is the land that is left to rest from planting during one or more vegetative cycles, with the purpose of recovering and storing organic matter and moisture. Usual fact in crop rotation. During the time it remains uncultivated, it is subjected to a series of tasks in order to improve its predisposition to cultivation. It had beginnings with the Jewish people when Jehovah dictated his law to Moses , the quote is found in The Bible in the book of Exodus chapter 23 verses from 10 to 11. In these verses Jehovah asks that the land be tilled for 6 years and that the seventh year, he calls it the Year of rest for the earth.
Summary
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- 1 Etymology
- 2 History
- 3 Process
- 4 short fallow
- 5 Source
Etymology
The word Fallow comes from the Latin vervactum, composed of ver, veris (spring, see spring and summer) and actum (made, I participate in the verb agere, see: act of saying, “made for spring.”
History
The fallow was made regular, also incorporating the grazing of animals to fertilize the soil, since until the 19th century there were no chemical fertilizers. Fallow land ensured the profitability of the land. Fallow is an agricultural process to allow the qualities of the soil not to wear down. There are two types of fallow, plowed, that in which weeds are removed and without plowing. In addition, within the carved fallows are the chemical plow fallow, in which weeds or weeds are eliminated by means of pesticides and the mechanical plow fallow which is more effective since it is treated with implements that accelerate the decomposition process. when burying herbs, for example disc plowing. Likewise, in Amazonian and Andean regions it was used as part of agricultural work to let the land “rest” and not to be overexploited. In Europe it began to be habitual in the Middle Ages, where farmland was cultivated with a periodicity in which rest and cultivation alternated, making it necessary to work with the plow in fallow times practicing fallow: a part of Farmland was left uncultivated but the plow was passed, thus plucking the wild grasses (which in turn served as compost) and increasing the humidity, so that the land recovered minerals that had been lost during cultivation.
Even today it is practiced by hundreds of indigenous communities in tropical regions. The pressure on land, from the agro-industry, puts more and more pressure on these communities to abandon this historical practice of balance in the use of the land resource.
Process
Fallow is an agricultural process to allow the qualities of the soil not to wear down. There are two types of fallow: plowed (the one in which weeds are removed) and without plowing. Among the plowed fallows are the chemical plow fallow, in which weeds or weeds are eliminated by means of herbicides and the mechanical plow fallow that has more effectiveness since it is treated with implements that accelerate the decomposition process by burying the herbs, for example plowing with
short fallow
- Short fallow, it only takes one or two years until the land is cultivated again, so the land does not fully regenerate.
- Long fallows, a long period of time passes between cultivation and cultivation, and the land fully recovers
