Inadequate farm crop diversity

Monoculture of crops
Single crop farming
Insufficient polyculture

Nature

Monocultures are highly unstable and unsustainable systems that spread not because they produce more food but because they produce more control.

Background

The global significance of inadequate farm crop diversity emerged in the mid-20th century, as the Green Revolution’s focus on high-yield monocultures led to widespread genetic uniformity. Scientists and policymakers began to recognize the vulnerability of food systems to pests, diseases, and climate change, highlighted by events such as the 1970 Southern corn leaf blight in the USA. Subsequent international efforts, including the establishment of gene banks, underscored the urgent need to preserve and diversify crop varieties.

Incidence

Inadequate farm crop diversity is a widespread issue affecting agricultural systems across continents, with monoculture practices dominating large swathes of farmland in North America, South America, Asia, and parts of Africa. This lack of diversity increases vulnerability to pests, diseases, and climate shocks, threatening food security and ecosystem resilience on a global scale. The problem is particularly acute in regions where market forces and policy incentives favour the cultivation of a few staple crops.
In 2022, India experienced a significant decline in crop diversity in the Punjab region, where over 80% of farmland was dedicated to rice and wheat. This led to soil degradation, increased pest outbreaks, and heightened water scarcity, prompting local authorities to call for urgent diversification measures.

Claim

The mindset that assumes that monocultures are essential for solving problems of scarcity underlies programmes such as World Bank-financed schemes that replace diverse natural forests with pine or eucalyptus plantations, and turn diversified farms into monocultures of "miracle" wheat or rice.

Counter-claim

Mechanized agriculture has made broadscale farming of single crops very efficient. The advantages for disease and pest management afforded by small-scale intermixed crops have been offset by chemical pesticides.