What are the benefits of cultivation, fallowing, tillage, crop cover, drainage, double cropping, irrigation ?

Question

What are the benefits of cultivation, fallowing, tillage, crop cover, drainage, double cropping, irrigation ?

Answer 1

Cultivation aerates the soil and helps control weeds.

Fallowing rests the soil and preserves soil moisture for the next years crop.

Tillage turns under old crop residue, prepares the seed bed for planting and  helps control weeds.

A cover crop is is planted to protect the soil from erosion during the winter months.  The cover crop is often turned under in the spring as a green manure crop to add to the organic matter and fertility of the soil.

Proper drainage gets the excess water off of the soil preventing it water-logging and drowning out the plants.  Proper drainage gets the water off in a controlled manner preventing erosion.

The benefits of double cropping are mainly economic.  Growing a crop like wheat through the winter and harvesting it in the spring and then planting a crop like soybeans gives you two crops per year on the same land.

Irrigation allows crops to be grown on land that otherwise could not produce a crop.  Sometimes irrigation is used to keep the crops growing through a drought giving higher yields or saving the crop altogether.