Cover crops are plants grown between main cash crops primarily to protect soil from erosion, suppress weeds, add organic matter and, in the case of legumes, fix atmospheric nitrogen, supporting the long-term productivity and sustainability credentials of a farming operation.
In trade practice
Organic certification bodies assess cover cropping as part of soil management evidence during annual inspections, and suppliers may need to record species used, sowing dates and incorporation methods. Buyers procuring organic grains or pulses from Ukraine increasingly ask for soil health documentation that includes cover crop history. Selecting the wrong species can introduce volunteer plants or disease hosts into the following cash crop.
In a specification
Cover crop requirements are typically embedded in organic certification standards or sustainability schemes as a soil management obligation, rather than stated as a standalone contractual parameter.