monoculture
Sign in to savethumb|Monocultural potato field In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monocultures increase ease and efficiency in planting, managing, and harvesting crops short-term, often with the help of machinery. However, monocultures are more susceptible to diseases or pest outbreaks long-term due to localized reductions in biodiversity and nutrient depletion. Crop diversity can be added both in time, as with a crop rotation or sequence, or in space, with a polyculture or intercropping. Monoculture practices have been linked via several pathways to
AI overview
Monoculture is the agricultural practice of growing a single crop species in a field, which makes farming easier and more efficient in the short term. However, monocultures can lead to serious long-term problems like increased vulnerability to diseases and pests, as well as nutrient depletion in the soil, because they reduce the biodiversity that naturally protects crops.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
21 sectionsContents
- Agriculture
- Environmental impacts
- Social impacts
- Agro-extractivism
- Forestry
- Environmental impacts
- Social impacts
- Residential monoculture
- Genetic monocultures
- Historic examples of genetic monocultures
- Great Famine of Ireland
- Bananas
- Cattle
- Benefits of genetic diversity
- Alternatives to monoculture
- Agroecology
- Silvopasture
- Mixed-species plantations
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|Monocultural potato field In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monocultures increase ease and efficiency in planting, managing, and harvesting crops short-term, often with the help of machinery. However, monocultures are more susceptible to diseases or pest outbreaks long-term due to localized reductions in biodiversity and nutrient depletion. Crop diversity can be added both in time, as with a crop rotation or sequence, or in space, with a polyculture or intercropping. Monoculture practices have been linked via several pathways to negatively impact human health from a One Health perspective. These links include but are not limited to environmental degradation, increased pest and disease outbreaks, greater pesticide/herbicide use, and reductions in dietary diversity (associated with diet-related disease burden including cardiovascular disease and diabetes).
Monocultures appear in contexts outside of agriculture and food production. Grass lawns are a common form of residential monocultures. Several monocultures, including single-species forest plantations, have become increasingly abundant throughout the tropics following market globalization, impacting local communities.