What do farmers grow legume crops …

The growing of different kinds of crops on a piece of land in a preplanned succession is known as crop rotation. In the rotation of crops, leguminous crops like pulses, beans, peas, groundnut and Bengal gram are sown in-between the seasons of cereal crops like wheat, maize and pearl millet. The leguminous plants are grown alternately with non-leguminous plants to restore the fertility of the soil. When the cereal crops like rice, wheat, maize are grown in the soil, it uses up a lot of nitrogenous salts from the soil. If another crop of cereal is grown in the same soil, the soil becomes nitrogen deficient. So by rotation a leguminous crop is grown. There plants have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen to form nitrogen compounds through the help of certain bacteria present in their root. These nitrogen compounds go into the soil and make it more fertile. After the leguminous plants utilize some of the nitrogen compounds, the rest of it is left in the soil to enrich it. Thus, planting a leguminous plant will result in nitrogen rich soil and when a cereal is grown in this soil there is increase in food grain production.