Crop rotation is the practice of alternating annual crops grown on a specific field in a planned pattern or sequence in successive crop years so that crops of the same species are not grown without interruption on the same field. Normally the crops are changed annually, but they can also be multiannual. To distinguish arable land from permanent crops or permanent grassland, a threshold of five years is used. This means that if a plot is used for the same crop for five years or more, without in the meantime removing the preceding crop and establishing a new one, it is not considered arable land.

EU, 2009b, Regulation (EC) No 1200/2009 of 30 November 2009 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on farm structure surveys and the survey on agricultural production methods, as regards livestock unit coefficients and definitions of the characteristics, OJ L329, 15.12.2009, pp. 1-28.

Source category: EU Legislation

Crop rotation on arable land is the practice of alternating crops grown on a specific field in a planned pattern or sequence in successive crop years so that crops of the same species are not grown without interruption on the same field. In a rotation the crops are normally changed annually, but they can also be multi-annual. If the same crop is grown continuously, the term monoculture can be used to describe the phenomenon.

Although there is no limit to the number of crops that are used in a rotation, nor in the amount of time that a rotation takes to complete, it is commonly accepted to use a threshold of 5 years to separate arable land from permanent crops or permanent grassland. This means that if a plot is used for the same crop for 5 years or more, without in the meantime removing the preceding crop and establishing a new one, then this plot is not considered to be in crop rotation and therefore is not to be taken as part of arable land.

Eurostat b, Glossary, accessed 5 December 2023

Source category: EC Technical Documents