TITLE:
The Role of Cover Crops towards Sustainable Soil Health and Agriculture—A Review Paper
AUTHORS:
Parmodh Sharma, Atinderpal Singh, Charanjit Singh Kahlon, Amandeep Singh Brar, Kulbhushan K. Grover, Mahendra Dia, Robert L. Steiner
KEYWORDS:
Cover Crops, Sustainable Agriculture, Soil Health, Legumes, Soil Properties
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.9 No.9,
August
28,
2018
ABSTRACT: Cover
crops are the plants which are grown to improve soil fertility, prevent soil
erosion, enrichment and protection of soil, and enhance nutrient and water
availability, and quality of soil. Cover crops provide several benefits
to soils used for agriculture production. Cover crops are helpful in increasing
and sustaining microbial biodiversity in soils. We summarized the effect of
several cover crops in soil properties such as soil moisture content, soil
microbial activities, soil carbon sequestration, nitrate leaching, soil water, and
soil health. Selection of cover crops usually depends on the primary benefits
which are provided by cover crops. Other factors may also include weather
conditions, time of sowing, either legume or non-legume and timing and method
of killing of a cover crop. In recent times, cover crops are also used for
mitigating climate change, suppressing weeds in crops and increasing
exchangeable nutrients such as Mg2+ and K+. Cover crops
are also found to be economical in long-term experiment studies. Although some
limitations always come with several benefits. Cover crops have some problems
including the method of killing, host for pathogens, regeneration, and not
immediate benefits of using them. Despite the few limitations, cover crops
improve the overall health of the soil and provide a sustainable environment
for the main crops.