Economic and risk evaluation of crop rotation systems: literature review

In many countries, inadequate management of agricultural production has depleted soils to the point of compromising future production in these areas.Thus, crop rotation systems, one of the pillars of conservation agriculture, are presented as an alternative to prevent such losses while regenerating degraded lands. Verifying whether conservation agriculture practices can generate both agronomic and financial gains for producers is crucial for achieving sustainable agricultural production. The objective of this article was to evaluate the current panorama of scientific literature, identifying studies on crop rotation systems published in national and international databases between 2018 and 2023, which address economic and risk analysis aspects of these systems. Articles published in the databases Scientific Electronic Library Online, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, CAPES Journals, and the Base de Dados da Pesquisa Agropecuária (BDPA) were analyzed. Twenty-five articles related to the topic and research objective were identified; 76% presented only studies on economic analyses, while 24% included risk analysis. Regarding the locations where the studies were conducted, 32% were studies conducted in Brazil and 68% in other countries. The year with the largest number of studies was 2019. Considering the theoretical framework presented, the findings of this study indicate that conservation agriculture practices, such as crop rotation systems, present bothm agronomic and economic benefits and can be strategies for reducing the risks inherent to agricultural activity.