Fallow is afarming technique in whicharable land is left withoutsowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and storeorganic matter while retainingmoisture and disrupting pest life cycles andsoil borne pathogens by temporarily removing theirhosts.Crop rotation systems typically called for some of a farmer's fields to be left fallow each year.[1]
The increase inintensive farming, including the use ofcover crops in lieu of fallow practices, has caused a loss of acreage of fallow land, as well as field margins, hedges, and wasteland. This has reducedbiodiversity; fallows have been the primary habitat for farmland bird populations.[2][failed verification]
Fallow syndrome is when a crop has insufficient nutrient uptake due to the lack ofarbuscular mycorhizae (AM fungi) in the soil following a fallow period. Crops such as corn that are prone to fallow syndrome should not follow a period of fallow, but instead should follow acover crop which is a host for AM fungi, such as oats or other small grain crops. The presence ofany plant roots, including weeds, can reduce occurrence of fallow syndrome. Nowadays, agricultural fields are routinely planted with cover crops to prevent erosion, keep down weeds, provide agreen manure, and reduce the risk of fallow syndrome.[3]
TheBook of Leviticus includes a mandate that fields are to be left fallow every seventh year. Furthermore, every fiftieth year is aJubilee year where fields are also to be left fallow. Since no new crops would be available for two years, and only the summer fruits would be available for the following year, this creates a much greater risk of starvation overall.[4] However, modern scholars contend that the jubilee year was held on the 49th year, meaning fields were only fallow for one year.[5][6][7]
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