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This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.

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Author: Mary Buhr, Dean and Professor, College of Agriculture & Bioresources, University of Saskatchewan

An illogical revolution has swept the Canadian Prairies and can take over the world. Farmland is now never rested — it is planted and harvested every year — and yet soil health has improved.

Food production from this continually cropped land has skyrocketed — and its nutritional value has increased. Today’s production of more, better food from the same amount of healthier land means that tomorrow’s population may not go hungry. But is there logical science behind this illogical revolution?

Science, like revolutions, has many complexities, but key to this major change is a trio of of farming tactics: planting pulses (beans, lentils and chickpeas, for example), rotating crops and embracing zero-till farming.