production of diverse varieties of crops rather than one specialized crop is called
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Crop diversity
Crop diversity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Crop diversity or crop biodiversity is the variety and variability of crops, plants used in agriculture, including their genetic and phenotypic characteristics. It is a subset of and a specific element of agricultural biodiversity. Over the past 50 years, there has been a major decline in two components of crop diversity; genetic diversity within each crop and the number of species commonly grown.Crop diversity loss threatens global food security, as the world's human population depends on a diminishing number of varieties of a diminishing number of crop species. Crops are increasingly grown in monoculture, meaning that if, as in the historic Great Famine of Ireland, a single disease overcomes a variety's resistance, it may destroy an entire harvest, or as in the case of the 'Gros Michel' banana, may cause the commercial extinction of an entire variety. With the help of seed banks, international organizations are working to preserve crop diversity.
Biodiversity loss[edit]
Geographic hotspots of distributions of crop wild relatives not represented in genebanks
The loss of biodiversity is considered one of today’s most serious environmental concerns by the Food and Agriculture Organization.[1][2] If current trends persist, as many as half of all plant species could face extinction.[3] Some 6% of wild relatives of cereal crops such as wheat, maize, rice, and sorghum are under threat, as are 18% of legumes (Fabaceae), the wild relatives of beans, peas and lentils, and 13% of species within the botanical family (Solanaceae) that includes potato, tomato, eggplant (aubergine), and peppers ().[4]
Within-crop diversity[edit]
Traditional mixed crop (polyculture) cultivation of cacao and banana, Trinidad, 1903
Within-crop diversity, a specific crop can result from various growing conditions, for example a crop growing in nutrient-poor soil is likely to have stunted growth than a crop growing in more fertile soil. The availability of water, soil pH level, and temperature similarly influence crop growth.[5]
Within-crop diversity: maize cobs of differing colours
In addition, diversity of a harvested plant can be the result of genetic differences: a crop may have genes conferring early maturity or disease resistance.[5] Such traits collectively determine a crop's overall characteristics and their future potential. Diversity within a crop includes genetically-influenced attributes such as seed size, branching pattern, height, flower color, fruiting time, and flavor. Crops can also vary in less obvious characteristics such as their response to heat, cold, a drought, or their ability to resist specific diseases and pests.
Modern plant breeders develop new crop varieties to meet specific conditions. A new variety might, for example, be higher yielding, more disease resistant or have a longer shelf life than the varieties from which it was bred. The practical use of crop diversity goes back to early agricultural methods of crop rotation and fallow fields, where planting and harvesting one type of crop on a plot of land one year, and planting a different crop on that same plot the next year. This takes advantage of differences in a plant's nutrient needs, but more importantly reduces the buildup of pathogens.[6]
Both farmers and scientists must continually draw on the irreplaceable resource of genetic diversity to ensure productive harvests. While genetic variability provides farmers with plants that have a higher resilience to pests and diseases and allows scientists access to a more diverse genome than can be found in highly selected crops.[7] The breeding of high performing crops steadily reduces genetic diversity as desirable traits are selected, and undesirable traits are removed. Farmers can increase within-crop diversity to some extent by planting mixtures of crop varieties.[8]
Ecological effects[edit]
Biodiverse agroecosystem: traditional potato harvesting high in the Andes, Manco Kapac Province, Bolivia, 2012
Agricultural ecosystems function effectively as self-regulating systems provided they have sufficient biodiversity of plants and animals. Apart from producing food, fuel, and fibre, agroecosystem functions include recycling nutrients, maintaining soil fertility, regulating microclimate, regulating water flow, controlling pests, and detoxification of waste products.[5]
However, modern agriculture seriously reduces biodiversity. Traditional systems maintain diversity within a crop species, such as in the Andes mountains where up to 50 varieties of potato are grown.[5] Strategies to raise genetic diversity can involve planting mixtures of crop varieties.[5]
Agricultural Diversification
Learn Agricultural Diversification topic at Vedantu. Agriculture Diversification refers to either a change in cropping pattern or the farmers opting for other non-farming options like poultry farming, animal husbandry, etc. Read more about Agricultural Diversification at Vedantu.com.
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Agriculture Diversification refers to either a change in cropping pattern or the farmers opting for other non-farming options like poultry farming, animal husbandry, etc. This practice allows farmers to expand the production, which helps generate a higher level of income.
Changing a cropping pattern implies the Diversification between food and non-food crops, conventional crops and horticulture, high value and low-value crops, etc.
After the emergence of Golden Revolution (1991-2003), diversification has started to flourish rapidly across the country,
Types of Diversification
There are mainly two types of agricultural diversification prominent in India. They are:
Horizontal Diversification - This relates to multiple cropping or mix of crops instead of cultivating a single crop. Horizontal Diversification is especially useful for small farmers who hold a small piece of land. This allows them to earn more by escalating cropping intensity.
Vertical Diversification - It refers to the incorporation of industrialisation along with multiple cropping. In this kind of Diversification, farmers take a further step and invest in activities like horticulture, agroforestry, livestock rearing, culture of aromatic plants, etc.
Major Features of Diversification
Introduction of multiple or mixed cropping systems.
Shift from sole agricultural activities to other allied enterprises like fishery, forest products, poultry and other non-agriculture sectors.
By every means, Diversification in agricultural activities proves to be extremely beneficial for small farmers to increase their incomes.
Reasons for Agricultural Diversification
The demand for high-value crops is increasing in India, and this paves the way for farmers to experiment with several cropping combinations. Apart from that, some other reasons make diversification an excellent choice for small and marginal farmers of India.
These include:
Climate Change - Diversification reasonably controls the damage that can occur from the unfavorable weather condition. This process safeguards the farmers from the loss of crops in such a situation.
Facilitate Several Employment Alternatives - Almost half of the employment of India revolves around the agriculture sector. Diversification creates new job opportunities for rural people other than traditional farming.
Increases of Income - Opting for Diversification will undoubtedly increase the income and will let the farmers live a comfortable life.
Exportation - Diversification, especially of non-farming products, makes a sizable export provision for its unique characteristics. India is now on the front line in exporting several agricultural products to multiple countries. This contributes to the overall growth of the economy.
Along with this, you can also read about the Agricultural Revolution of India and how that impacted this essential sector of the country.
Benefits of Diversification
The benefits of employing Diversification are mentioned below.
It helps in reducing risk factors as it ensures that the farmers do not lose all of their resources if the weather does not favor the crop production.
Since multiple crops can be harvested from a small field, the production increases ten-fold, which ensures a substantial amount of income.
The agriculture sector is already crowded in India; therefore, it makes provision for additional employment in rural areas.
The importance of crop diversification lies in the fact that it effectively increases soil fertility and controls pest incidences.
The boost in rural employment impacts the overall economy of the nation, as agriculture in India falls into the primary sector of the country.
Kinds of Non-farm Employment in Rural Areas
The scope for employment in non-farm sectors in India is immense. Some of these are listed below.
Livestock - It includes breeding, raising and nurturing the pastoral animals for food or raw material (like meat, milk, wool, skin, etc.) that can be used for commercial purposes. It provides livelihood to over 70 million rural farmers. Livestock is also used by farmers as an instrument in a farm for transport and carrying agricultural inputs, and animals like cows are used in the field for conventional plowing methods.
Horticulture - Horticulture refers to the cultivation of garden crops like fruits, flowers, vegetables, etc. India is a significant exporter of different fruits like bananas, mangoes, sugarcane, etc. across the globe. This sector employs almost 19% of the country's workforce.
Fisheries - It involves catching, sorting, selling and distributing fishes, prawns, oysters, crabs and other marine and fresh-water fishes. The coastal states like Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala are the key regions to supply fishes across the country and export to other countries. This sector contributes to 1.9% of Indian GDP. Since mostly women are employed in this sector, the scope for women empowerment in the field is prominent.
Crop Diversification an Effective Strategy for Sustainable Agriculture Development
Sustainable agricultural practices involve a variety of approaches. The most important approached for sustainable agriculture development is crop diversification. It allowing the farmers to employ biological cycles to minimize inputs, conserve the resource base, maximize yields and also reduce the risk due to ecological and environmental factors. It serves as an important opportunity to augment income and employment generation for rural communities. Crop diversification promotes the interaction of beneficial soil bacteria, interrupts the disease cycle, and reduces the quantity of weeds. Crop diversification boosts land-use efficiency and crop output by improving the physical and chemical qualities of soil. Crop diversification shows a lot of scope to alleviating the problems such as resurgence of insects-pests and weeds, soil degradation, environmental pollution, soil salinity, decline farm profit and climate change. Crop diversification through crop intensification system enhanced the net returns, B:C ratio, and overall system productivity of a farm. In order to achieve the benefits of crop diversification farmers are shifting from low value low yielding crops to high value high yielding crops. Thus, crop diversification has the sound capacity for achieving the goal of nutritional security, income growth, food security, employment generation and sustainable agriculture development.
Home > Books > Sustainable Crop Production - Recent Advances
OPEN ACCESS PEER-REVIEWED CHAPTER
Crop Diversification an Effective Strategy for Sustainable Agriculture Development
WRITTEN BY
Anamika Barman, Priyanka Saha, Shashank Patel and Anurag Bera
Submitted: January 3rd, 2022 Reviewed: January 12th, 2022 Published: April 9th, 2022
DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.102635
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Sustainable Crop Production
Recent Advances
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Sustainable Crop Production
Edited by Vijay Singh Meena, Mahipal Choudhary, Ram Prakash Yadav and Sunita Kumari Meena
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Abstract
Sustainable agricultural practices involve a variety of approaches. The most important approached for sustainable agriculture development is crop diversification. It allowing the farmers to employ biological cycles to minimize inputs, conserve the resource base, maximize yields and also reduce the risk due to ecological and environmental factors. It serves as an important opportunity to augment income and employment generation for rural communities. Crop diversification promotes the interaction of beneficial soil bacteria, interrupts the disease cycle, and reduces the quantity of weeds. Crop diversification boosts land-use efficiency and crop output by improving the physical and chemical qualities of soil. Crop diversification shows a lot of scope to alleviating the problems such as resurgence of insects-pests and weeds, soil degradation, environmental pollution, soil salinity, decline farm profit and climate change. Crop diversification through crop intensification system enhanced the net returns, B:C ratio, and overall system productivity of a farm. In order to achieve the benefits of crop diversification farmers are shifting from low value low yielding crops to high value high yielding crops. Thus, crop diversification has the sound capacity for achieving the goal of nutritional security, income growth, food security, employment generation and sustainable agriculture development.
Keywords
crop diversificationsustainable agriculturenutritional securityfood security
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1. Introduction
An ever-increasing worldwide population, especially in many developing nations, necessitates additional food, fiber, and oil supplies, posing a serious challenge to agricultural scientists to produce more and more from limited, diminishing, and degraded land and water resources. By 2050, it is expected that the global population will have increased by 50%, and global grain demand would have doubled [1]. The stress from climate change, accompanying extreme weather and urbanization also creates the burden. Global agriculture in the present status points to a formidable challenge to agricultural sustainability. The most important danger to food security and the environment is dwindling per capita natural resources, as well as resource depletion and degradation. Existing intensification technologies are showing symptoms of wear and tear. The loss of biodiversity, groundwater shortages, fossil water extraction, groundwater contamination, and rising atmospheric CO2 levels are all severe risks to sustainability. A variety of methodologies are used in sustainable production practises. Specific strategies must take into account the site specific and individual nature of sustainable agriculture. Reduced dependency on monocultures can give better resilience and reduce the chance of total system failure, which is critical for attaining long-term sustainable agricultural development. It can be a dynamic and continuous process to adjust in changing circumstances. Diversification is the process of utilization of the various emerging opportunities created by new market, technology, changes in governmental policies, higher profitability and also stability in the production system [2]. It is a useful strategy for reducing the risk in farming [3]. Crop diversification is generally viewed as shift from a traditionally grown less remunerative crops to more remunerative crops. Crop diversification is recognized as one of the most environmentally feasible, cost-effective, and reasonable approaches to reduce uncertainty in agriculture, particularly in the face of climate change. Crop diversification helps in minimizing the alleviating second generations problem such as soil degradation, soil salinity, insect-pest and disease insurgence, environmental pollution, decline in farm profit, nutrient imbalance, climate change etc. Crop diversification promotes farm resilience, or the ability of an agroecosystem to return to its former productive state after being perturbed, by increasing geographical and temporal biodiversity. Although crop diversification is not a new concept to many rural people in developing and emerging economies, there has been little research on the subject to date. However, there is increasing global interest in the area, owing to current worries about biodiversity loss, as well as human and environmental health. Thus, in this book chapter we are trying to give some understanding about the topic Crop diversification an effective strategy for sustainable agriculture development.
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