Land Practice

In this context, long-term horticultural crops are those that have a production regime that requires a low frequency of soil tillage.  Soil tillage is usually only assocated with the establishment of the crop that grows for several seasons without further soil disturbance.  Therefore, reducing the risk of the negative effects of tillage, i.e. erosion and soil structural decline.  Long-term horticultural crops include papaws, bananas, pineapples, tree crops (e.g. macadamias, mangoes, citrus, lychees, avocados, custard apples) and vine crops (e.g. grapes and passionfruit). Management activities associated with crop production can have serious on- and offsite effects on productive capacity and ecological and landscape processes.  

Crop management may involve the management activities of:

• Crop Harvesting
• Fertiliser application
• Irrigation with fresh water
• Pest animal control  
• Pesticide application
• Soil tillage
• Stubble management