Monocultures promote pest infestation. Because monocultures are acres of the same plant, the entire monoculture attracts the same types of pests. Because there is no biodiversity to mitigate these effects, and because the pests can so easily obtain food and multiply, the pests can infest an entire monoculture.
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The increasing use of pesticides, herbicides, and other chemical substances in monoculture farming, which are called to maintain the crop growth and the fertility of “impoverished” soils, damages the health of pollinating insects and often kills them.
It should be noted that the concept of monoculture does not only apply to crops, but to farm animals as well: it consists in breeding only one species of animals on a given farm, be it dairy cows, sheep, pigs, chicken, etc.
As the world’s population augments in number and the demand for food on the global scale keeps rising, many farmers deem monoculture agriculture to be the simplest solution for satisfying this constantly growing need for victuals.
For this reason, the soil around monoculture crops is often devoid of the significant layer of topsoil, which causes imbalance in water retention on such farmlands. In order to combat this loss of water, farmers have to use larger amounts of this important resource.
The increasing use of pesticides, herbicides, and other chemical substances in monoculture farming, which are called to maintain the crop growth and the fertility of “impoverished” soils, damages the health of pollinating insects and often kills them.
Monocultures promote pest infestation. Because monocultures are acres of the same plant, the entire monoculture attracts the same types of pests. Because there is no biodiversity to mitigate these effects, and because the pests can so easily obtain food and multiply, the pests can infest an entire monoculture.
By directing away from natural elements provided by the ecosystem, monoculture must replicate these to protect the crops and the profit they make. This involves the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, bactericides.
The problem with monocultures, Wetzel said, is that if an insect likes the crop, that insect has a large food supply to draw from all in one place. Conversely, a field containing a variety of plants does not offer a large block of food for the insect, so it will not get the nutrients it needs to survive and thrive.
Raising a single crop has drawbacks as it increases the risk of disease and pest outbreaks because monocultures lack other plant and animal species that limit the spread of disease and control pests through predation.
Monocropping also creates the spread of pests and diseases, which must be treated with yet more chemicals. The effects of monocropping on the environment are severe when pesticides and fertilizers make their way into ground water or become airborne, creating pollution.
The monoculture crops are always more vulnerable to pests and blight because these threats are likable to move quicker through the area because of lower biodiversity. As a result, the farmers will apply more herbicides and pesticides to protect the crops.
Benefits. In crop monocultures, each plant in a field has the same standardized planting, maintenance, and harvesting requirements resulting in greater yields and lower costs. When a crop is matched to its well-managed environment, a monoculture can produce higher yields than a polyculture.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Monoculture FarmingSpecialized production.Technological advances.High efficiency.Greater yields of some produce.Simpler to manage.Higher earnings.Pest problems.Pesticide resistance.
Extreme environmental events – droughts, hot or cold weather – are per- haps the most well-known triggers of outbreaks.
Monocropping Promotes Plant Disease Spread Monocultures are shown to be increasing the spread of new pathogens and these problematic traits. While climate change is only one of the problems that our crops are facing. The increasing emergence of fungicide resistance fungi is also a growing cause of concern.
Monocropping is the practice of growing the same crop on the same plot of land, year after year. This practice depletes the soil of nutrients (making the soil less productive over time), reduces organic matter in soil and can cause significant erosion.
Monoculture crops are more likely to be affected by blight or pests , as these threats can move faster through the area due to its reduced biodiversity. In response, farmers apply greater amounts of pesticides and herbicides to protect the crop. These chemicals seep into the ground, contaminating both the soil and the groundwater. Moreover, monoculture farms tend to intensify even more the use of pesticides, as some kinds of pests survive the use of chemicals by developing resistance to them. Later, these parasites pass this newly acquired immunity to their offspring which, in their turn, will proliferate on the given field plot even more, as their main source of food keeps staying in one place.
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.
Monoculture farming is a form of agriculture that is based on growing only one type of a crop at one time on a specific field. In contrast, a polyculture system assumes that a field is sown with two or more crops at a time. It should be noted that the concept of monoculture does not only apply to crops, but to farm animals as well: it consists in breeding only one species of animals on a given farm, be it dairy cows, sheep, pigs, chicken, etc.
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.
Monoculture planting maximizes the efficient use of soil and local climate conditions. In most cases, farmers select the crop that will thrive best in the local environment. 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.g. drought, winds or colder average temperatures) become the focal point of the agricultural monoculture system. 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.
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. This approach in Crop Monitoring is based on 5 main indices (NDVI, MSAVI, NDRE, ReCl); each of them is more applicable to the particular stage of crop development. Also, these vegetation indices correlate with the Growth Stages feature in Crop Monitoring, which is specific for each crop.
Agricultural monoculture upsets the natural balance of soils. Too many of the same plant species in one field area rob the soil of its nutrients, resulting in decreasing varieties of bacteria and microorganisms that are needed to maintain fertility of the soil.