Plants have a genetic predisposition to mutations and development of diverse plant species. Additionally, in a monoculture system, the farmer determines the plant potential. Every season he grows new genetically identical crops, thus disabling crop biodiversity.
The monoculture system has been shown to have positive effects on farm productivity and profitability. The main advantages of this farm system are:. Despite the potential to achieve high and stable yields, the monoculture system may have negative effects on the soil, environment, and human livelihood, including:. In the past, monoculture has shown to be a very unreliable farm system due to crop's unconformity to new and modified environmental conditions.
Garnier, E. A problem for biodiversity-productivity studies: how to compare the productivity of multispecific plant mixtures to that of monocultures? Acta Oecologica, 18 6 , — Tilman, D. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 45 1 , Monoculture vs. Enter your email address to subscribe to our blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Science in action to improve the sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and food systems.
Posted by Andrew McGuire May 26, Decoupling of US corn production from area farmed. Data source: US Census Bureau , Here is how monocultures and polycultures fit into diversity in both space and time: Diversity of crops in space and time; monocultures and polycultures, and rotations of both. Pretty polyculture; diverse but productive? Photo: A. McGuire With regard to the biodiversity-productivity question, a meta-analysis by Cardinale et al. Wheat growing in a monoculture in eastern WA.
Photo: Seattle. What are the implications of all this for agriculture? Trenbath B R Biomass productivity of mixtures. Related posts: Monoculture vs. Latest Blog Posts Will I be able to get fries with that? The positive effects of monoculture farming are often seen with such crops as rice grown in conditions similar to those of wetlands and wheat which is grown in flat areas with plenty of sunlight.
Plants that can resist or thrive in specific weather conditions e. In contrast, a traditional farmer is concerned with crop variety and implements a complex schedule of planting, maintenance, and harvesting to maximize the production of different crops. Despite this increased effort, the productivity and efficiency of monoculture farming is usually higher.
When growing monoculture crops, agrarians tend to have some extra time and financial resources to refer to new technologies in agriculture helping them to maximize their agricultural performance. Among the newest technical solutions in the service of farmers are drones , ground sensors, and satellite-derived data.
One of the most innovative and comprehensive technologies in this matter are satellite tools that are used for a complex monitoring of specific fields and management of all the stages of sowing and growing crops on them. A bright example of such new technologies is the EOS Crop Monitoring software, which is a high-performance tool that assists farmers with their day-to-day activities both on large and small farmlands in any corner of the globe.
Fields analytics tool with access to high-resolution satellite images for remote problem areas identification! Industrial monoculture planting allows farmers to specialize in a particular crop, as they usually deal with the same issues and problems that may arise in the process of growing. The advantage of such specialization is that it increases profits and reduces costs , given that no additional machinery or other resources are required except for those needed to work with this specific kind of crop.
Moreover, when a single crop is cultivated in a field, it is easier to conduct a satellite monitoring of its health and development. Also, these vegetation indices correlate with the Growth Stages feature in Crop Monitoring, which is specific for each crop.
Some types of crops, such as cereals for example, are deemed to have better yields when sown and grown as monocultures, i. However, such maximization of yields with monoculture planting can only be achieved on the condition of yearly rotation of at least two different crops on the given farmland.
In this regard, it is also worth noting that with the EOS Crop Monitoring software farmers can generate productivity maps to identify the field plots with better performance.
Such productivity maps allow farmers to plant their seeds with greater precision that potentially will result in higher yields. Cultivating monoculture crops is easier as compared to polyculture ones. This relative simplicity in monoculture farming is explained by the fact that growing only one kind of a crop demands less efforts, knowledge, and resources than cultivating various sorts of plants.
For example, monoculture planting requires less machinery for soil preparation or harvesting, while growing various crops at a time requires different types of machines. The same is true for irrigation and pest control. By growing monoculture plants, farmers usually benefit from higher profits. For example, cultivating a single kind of crop that is best suited to development in specific climate conditions, allows the farmer to get better yields and, therefore, get higher income.
Farmers who stick to monoculture farming face more difficulties in terms of struggling with pest infestations on their field. Pests are most prolific on farmlands having only one single kind of crop grown on them year after year. Also, in the context of protection from field parasites, monoculture planting lacks some important aspect that polyculture farming can boast of — genetic diversity of plants.
Polyculture, for example, may provide for some types of plants on the field that repel pests. Such plants thus serve as a natural barrier to development of pest infestations on farmlands. The higher demand of nutrients is fulfilled by using higher amount of fertilizers. These fertilizers have their own toll on the environment discussed ahead. Monocultures are quite vulnerable to weeds and pests, which means we need to use more pesticides to get rid of them.
Monoculture farms have plants which are almost clones of each other, this would mean if one plant was to be susceptible to a pest; the rest of them would also be susceptible. Pests also find these monocropping farms home-like because the plants they like to eat grow each year at the same specific time attracting the pests to the farmland. This raises the risk of economic loss on the farmers who practice monocropping because if one plant was to go bad, the rest of them would also be affected leading to loss of profit on the whole farmland due to devastated agricultural production.
As discussed above of how monoculture crops are more at risk from weeds and pests along with increased susceptibility and greater attraction of pests. The increased amount of fertilizers and pesticides applied on the fields find their way into the ground water and flow into rivers causing water pollution and also get mixed with the air causing air pollution. Deforestation is another major issue created by monocropping as the demand for Land increases. It has also been suggested that there is a high dependency on fossil fuels which could lead to increased environmental problems like global warming.
Growing specific species of crops monoculture farming leads to loss of biodiversity. Because the monocrops are genetically similar similar species , their resistance to diseases is also similar.
Hence, if a crop was to be infected by a disease, there is a chance of the whole farmland being compromised by the same disease. Contrary to popular belief, newer research has suggested that plant communities polyculture have actually been found to have a higher yield rather than pure monoculture farms.
While talking about the pros and cons of monoculture farming, one should also appreciate the fact that there is an alternative which might be a solution to all of these issues related to monoculture farming. Polyculture has been the more popular option among farmers along all history of conventional and organic farming.
Polyculture farming is quite beneficial because of its ability to resist pests, weeds as well as diseases. This is the reason that polyculture farming is considered a part of sustainable agriculture. A branch of polyculture is Crop Rotation, where the crops are rotated at regular intervals and different crops are planted on each seasonal cycle so as to replenish nutrients in the soil and be able to grow commercially viable crops at the same time.
This enhances the soil quality as well as pest resistance, which would mean the use of pesticides and fertilizers is sure to reduce.
Crop Rotation is practiced by most organic farmers today. This will also go a long way in protecting the environment.
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