Okuzeka
Agriculture vocabulary · Soil and Land Management

Cover crop

Meaning in agriculture, with examples

nounCommon term

In agriculture, cover crop means: A crop grown mainly to protect and improve the soil between main crops, rather than to be harvested, such as vetch, clover, rye or mustard.

In Turkish: örtü bitkisi, yeşil gübre bitkisi

How it is used

Used in soil conservation, organic farming and orchards. Farmers sow cover crops after harvest and later mow, graze or incorporate them. Legume cover crops add nitrogen; when they are plowed in, they are called green manure.

Example sentences

  1. We sow a vetch and barley cover crop between the rows of the olive grove.

  2. The cover crop protected the soil from winter rains and added organic matter.

Common collocations

  • sow a cover crop
  • legume cover crop
  • winter cover crop
  • green manure
  • terminate a cover crop
  • soil erosionThe loss of the top layer of soil when it is carried away by water or wind, often made worse by bare ground, slopes and heavy tillage.
  • organic matterThe part of the soil formed from decaying plant and animal material; it holds water and nutrients and improves soil structure.
  • crop rotationThe practice of growing different crops on the same field in a planned order over several seasons to keep the soil healthy and reduce pests, diseases and weeds.
  • no-till farmingA system in which crops are sown directly into the remains of the previous crop without plowing or other soil cultivation.
  • fallowDescribing farmland that is left without a crop for a season or longer, so that it can store moisture, recover fertility or be cleaned of weeds.

More terms: Soil and Land Management

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: