Lack of crop rotation and cover crops . This practice results in land erosion and use of more fertilizer and pesticides. Cover crops prevent land erosion because the roots of plants create a net which hold the soil in place during precipitation and irrigation. Some types of cover crops store nitrogen in their root systems. This can be tilled into the land and used as a source of nitrogen fertilizer for future crops.
Crop rotation is the practice of alternating the type of crop planted.
It enhances soil quality, allowing the use of less fertilizer. It also helps limit pest infestation, which results in the use of less pesticides. There are numerous alternative practices which can decrease the impacts the agricultural industry has on our drinking water resources. For example, catchment ponds can be used to treat pesticide run-off and vegetative buffer zones around canals can extract nitrogenous waste and phosphates. In order to change common practice in the industry new approaches must be shown to be economically sound and effective.