Whoever skilled agronomist you speak to will tell you that crop rotation (1) is one of the most important agricultural practices, existing for thousands of years, and often used in organic farming but with less and less use in conventional agriculture (2). Though when trying to find out which scientific literature there exists about this topic, to prove its benefit, you realise that studies are scattered and have never been gathered in a same paper
Why? Few researchers are engaging in research projects, financed beyond three to five years terms, though it takes much longer to evaluate beneficial impacts of crop rotations; rotation may need to be 6 years or longer to achieve the desired crop protection effects, and to quantify such effects it would be necessary to monitor at least 2 successive rotations.
Generally, rotations are not a subject of interest as a business opportunity, as only few had a commercial interest. As a result this is a topic which should receive high priority for public research.
As the EU is currently negotiating the financial framework of the next EU budget, and discussing research priorities, this paper aims at giving an overview of some of the essential research needs on crop rotation.