Monocropping

6 Key excerpts on "Monocropping"

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  eBook - ePub

  Hungry for Profit

  The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food, and the Environment

  • Fred Magdoff, John Bellamy Foster, Frederick H. Buttel, Fred Magdoff, John Bellamy Foster, Frederick H. Buttel(Authors)
  • 2000(Publication Date)
  • Monthly Review Press

    (Publisher)

  6

  The technologies that allowed the shift toward specialization and monoculture were mechanization, the improvement of crop varieties, and the development of agrochemical to fertilize crops and control weeds, insects, and other crop pests as well as antibiotics and growth stimulants for agricultural animals. United States government commodity policies over the last several decades encouraged the acceptance and utilization of these technologies. In addition, the largest agribusiness corporations have found that concentrating certain processing facilities for a given product (chickens, hogs, or wheat) in specific areas of the country produces more profits, which lead to more farm and regional specialization. As a result, farms today are fewer, larger, more specialized, and more capital intensive.

  From an ecological perspective, the regional consequences of monoculture specialization are many-fold:7

  (1) Most large-scale agricultural systems exhibit a poorly structured grouping of farm components, with almost no linkages or complementary relationships between crop enterprises, and among soils, crops, and animals.

  (2) Cycles of nutrients, energy, water, and wastes have become more open, rather than closed as in a natural ecosystem. Despite the substantial amount of crop residues and manure produced on farms, it is becoming increasingly difficult to recycle nutrients, even within agricultural systems. Animal wastes cannot economically be returned to the land in a nutrient-recycling process because animal production is frequently geographically remote from where crops are grown. In many areas, agricultural waste has become a liability rather than a resource. Recycling nutrients from urban centers back to the fields is similarly difficult.

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  eBook - PDF

  Biotechnology of Crop Science

  • Smith, P(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Agri Horti Press

    (Publisher)

  , growing only rabbi crops in drylands or only said crops in diary lands (Lands situated in river basins which often remain flooded during rainy season). This is due to climatologically and socio economic conditions or due to specialisation of a farmer in growing a particular crop. Groundnut or cotton or sorghum is grown year due to limitation of rainfall. Flue-cured tobacco is grown in Günter (A.P.) due to specialisation of a farmer in growing a particular crop. Rice crop is grown, as it is not possible to grow any other crops, in canal irrigated areas, and under water logged conditions. Monoculture : Practice of repetitive growing only crop irrespective of its intensity as rice-rice-rice in Kerala, West Bengal and Orissa. Sole Cropping : One crop variety grown alone in pure stand at normal density. Multiple Cropping or Polycropping : It is a cropping system where two or three crops are gown annually on the same piece of land using high This ebook is exclusively for this university only. Cannot be resold/distributed. 32 Biotechnology in Crop Agronomy input without affecting basic fertility of the soil. Growing two or more crops on the same piece of land in one calendar year known as multiple cropping. It is the intensification of cropping in time and space dimensions i.e., , more number of crops within a year and more number of crops on the same piece of land at any given period. It includes inter-cropping, mixed cropping and sequence cropping. Multiples cropping is a philosophy of maximum crop production per acre of land with minimum of soil deterioration. • Rice-potato-green gram. • Rice-mustard-maize. • Rice-potato-sesame. • Jut-rice-potato. Cropping intensity is more that 200 per cent when the farm as a whole is considered; the Multiple Cropping Index (MCI) is determined by the number of crops and total area planted divided by the total arable area. When the value is three or more, it is said to be most promising farm.

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  eBook - PDF

  Orchard and Estate Management

  • Bhimasen Naik, Ranjan Kumar Tarai, Ajit Kumar Sahoo, Purandar Mandal(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • NIPA GENX Electronic Resources and Solutions Pvt Ltd.

    (Publisher)

  B. Mixed Cropping Mixed cropping refers to growing of two or more crops simultaneously with no distinct row arrangement. This cropping pattern is used in vegetable crops, wherein, two or more crops are grown simultaneously without a definite row pattern. Another example of mixed cropping is tomatoes + onions + marigold. It is generally practiced with a view to avoid risk in farming. Here, the seeds of different crops are mixed together and then sown either in lines or they are broadcasted. This system is not scientific and it causes problem in performing all agricultural operations and harvesting of crops. This system of cropping is generally practiced in areas where climatic hazards such as flood, drought, frost etc. are frequent and common. It is a type of subsistence farming and ensures different needs of family. In mixed cropping or diverse cropping two or more crops are grown all at the same time in a field. If by chance one crop fails, the other crops cover the risk of total crop failure. Usually a long duration crop is grown with a short duration one so that both get sufficient nutrition at the time of maturity. Mixed cropping fulfils diverse functions like complementary use of growth factors, like soil nutrients, light, and water; reduced pest and disease incidence, reduced soil erosion, total biomass production, yield stability and food security. 68 Orchard and Estate Management The intensive agricultural systems involving monoculture is associated with high input of chemical fertilisers and pesticide and also has negative impacts on soil and water quality and on biodiversity conservation. Alternatively, mixed cropping may reveal many potential advantages under various conditions like higher overall productivity, better control of pests and diseases, enhanced ecological balance and greater economic profitability.

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  eBook - ePub

  Established and Emerging Practices for Soil and Crop Productivity

  • Avtar Singh Bimbraw(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  Cropping pattern’ and `cropping system’ are two terms used interchangeably; however these are two different concepts. While cropping pattern refers to the yearly sequence and spatial arrangement of crops or of crops and fallow in a particular land area; Cropping system refers to cropping pattern as well as its interaction with resources; technology, environment etc. Thus, a cropping system comprises cropping pattern plus all components required for the production of a particular crop and the interrelationships between them and environment. Cropping system is a critical aspect in developing an effective ecological farming system to manage and organize crops so that they best utilize the available resources. (soil, air, sunlight, water, labour, equipments). It represents cropping patterns used on a farm and their interaction with farm resources and farm enterprises and available technology which determine their makeup. It is executed in the field level.

  Multiple cropping is the practice of growing two or more crops in the same piece of land in same growing season instead of one crop. It is a form of polyculture. The most important aspect of the multiple cropping is the practice of intensification of cropping system in time & space dimension that is more no. of crops within a year & more no. crops in a same piece of land. Some additional terms are also used as agroforestry, mixed and intercropping etc.

  Types of Multiple Cropping Systems

  1. Sequential cropping: Growing two or more crops in sequence on the same field per year. The succeeding crop is planted after the preceding one has been harvested.
     • » Crop intensification is only in the time dimension.
     • » There is no intercrop competition.
     • » Farmers manage only one crop at a time.

  Types of sequential cropping

  1. Double Cropping: growing of 2 crops in a year. Eg: cowpea- bajra green gram- jowar
  2. Triple Cropping: growing of 3 crops in a year. Eg: Rice- potato-groundnut Cowpea-mustard- jute
  3. Quadruple cropping: growing of 4 crops in a year. eg: maize — toria — potato - wheat green gram - maize — toria — wheat
  4. Ratoon cropping/ stubble cultivation: cultivation stubble re-growth after the harvest of the crop. eg: sugar cane mulberry

  2) Inter cropping:

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  eBook - ePub

  Multiple Cropping And Tropical Farming Systems

  • Willem C. Beets(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  V Agro-technical characteristics of multiple cropping systems

  Introduction

  The growth and development of a crop, which is an aggregation of individual plants of the same species, can be regarded as a system with the following components:

  • (i) the characteristics of the plant species;
  • (ii) the functioning of the plant during its development; and
  • (iii) the plant environment.

  It is the interplay of these components with which agriculturalists are normally concerned.

  Since modern crop varieties have a great degree of genetic similarity among individual plants, the characteristics and the functioning of the single plant usually give a good indication of the characteristics of monoculture crops. In such systems the crop-environment interaction is more important than the interaction between individual plants within a crop. On the other hand, in multiple cropping, the interaction between the components of the crop between plants of different species - is very important. At the same time, crop-environment interaction remains as important as in monocultures, and consequently, understanding the interrelationships between the physiological activities and the environment of a multi-species crop is more difficult than for a monoculture crop.

  In sequential cropping, the influences that different crops have on each other is generally not very great. These can be summarized as follows:

  • (i) A crop can affect the soil structure for the following crop in the rotation. An example of a crop that leaves behind a good soil structure is soya beans, and examples of crops which make land preparation and planting of a following crop difficult are cotton and rice;
  • (ii) Crops that are host to soil borne pests and diseases may result in a build-up of pests and pathogens in the soil which may affect the following crop. Tobacco, for example, leaves behind nematodes. On the other hand, marigolds have a positive effect by killing or suppressing nematodes;

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  eBook - ePub

  Indigenous Agricultural Revolution

  Ecology and Food Production in West Africa

  • Paul Richards(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Where a crop is planted and harvested, and followed by further crops in the same year, it is usual to speak of ‘ sequential cropping’. The term ‘ relay cropping’ is used where these sequences overlap. Intercropping, sequential cropping and relay cropping are thus distinguished from ‘sole cropping’ – the planting of one crop per field per season, and ‘ monoculture’ – the planting of a single crop in the same field for a succession of seasons, or indefinitely (Steiner, 1982). Variables Intercropping systems can vary in four main ways: In terms of the number of crops and crop-combinations involved. In the forest zone up to 60 crop species may be planted in one farm, though 20-30 is probably nearer the norm. Numbers of crop species tend to be lower in savanna intercropped farms -typically 10-15. In both forest and savanna areas each intercropped farm will be dominated by a handful of main crops: e.g. a major staple, or a combination of two or three main food and cash crops. Combinations of crops vary according to local environmental, economic and social conditions. In the forest zone the scope for variation in crop combinations is almost infinite. Even in the savanna, there is much scope for varying combinations to suit local conditions. Norman (1974) found as many as 147 distinct intercrop combinations in three villages in the Zaria region in northern Nigeria. In terms of patterns of ownership and labour responsibilities. On farms in the yam cultivation zone from Ivory Coast to eastern Nigeria it is common to find that men own and carry out the bulk of the work on the main crop – white yam – but that women own and are responsible for the subsidiary intercrops, e.g. maize, coco-yam, cassava, and vegetables (see, for example, Uzozie, 1979). Similar patterns of social specialization are also found further west, where rice takes over from yam and cassava as the dominant staple

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