'The earth laughs in flowers.' - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The bright yellow fields of oilseed rape are a refreshing sight during spring and early summer. These flowers belong to the mustard family and they offer several advantages as well as disadvantages to our environment such as:

Used to produce vegetable oil.
The seeds can be used for animal feed.
Plants have a developed root system which can reach the minerals located in the lower layers of soil and also prevent soil erosion.
The crop can retain moisture well as well as saturate the field with oxygen.
It is a green manure crop as it helps to fertilise the soil by naturally adding nitrogen to it. This in turn helps to increase the yield of the crops such as wheat which are grown next.
The plant’s rapid growth and lushness protects the field from wind and weed dispersion.
Oilseed rape is a ‘break crop’ or a 'secondary crop' as it is grown to interrupt the repeated sowing of cereals as a part of crop rotation there by breaking the cycle of weeds, pests and diseases that build up in the soil.
Oilseed rape can be used to produce ethanol, diesel and other liquid ‘biofuels.’
Rapeseed is attractive to bees which are one of the crop’s main pollinators. However, the pesticides used on the crops are dangerous to bees.
The pungent smell of pollen taints the taste of the honey produced.
Biodiesel produced from the rapeseed emits nitrous oxide which is a powerful greenhouse gas and is 300 times stronger than carbon dioxide.

In some regions, viability of rapeseed crops is under serious threat due to these challenges.

A tryst with nature #rapeseed