By diversifying crops, agricultural households can distribute economic and production risk among a wider range of crops, thus reducing the financial risks associated with unfavourable weather conditions or market disruptions. Growing diverse products can also help financially by expanding market potential. The impact of crop diversification on the rural economy and poverty alleviation should be investigated in detail. Crop diversification increases the efficiency of land use and crop production by improving the physical and chemical qualities of the soil.
This allows us to investigate the pattern and extent of the diversification of high-value crops according to land sizes, as well as their profitability compared to other crops. Crop diversification shows great scope for alleviating problems such as the resurgence of insects (pests and weeds), soil degradation, environmental pollution, soil salinity, reduced agricultural profits and climate change. The diversification of agriculture, in general, refers to the transition from regional or temporal dominance of a single crop to the production of a variety of crops in order to meet the growing need for cereals, legumes, oilseeds, fibers, fuel and feed. In this approach, farmers and others add value to products through packaging, processing, regional branding and marketing to improve the commercial value of crops.
However, an agronomy professor at Iowa State University, co-author of the study, said that some marketing and agricultural policy considerations will have to change in order for farmers to adopt diversification practices more broadly. Because of its low operating base, increasing the production of existing crops (staple food crops) may not be enough to increase your income. The Crop Trust is an international non-profit organization dedicated to conserving and making crop diversity available for use around the world, forever and for the benefit of all. On the other hand, crop intensification is adding new valuable crops to the existing cultivation system to increase the overall productivity of the farm.
Comparison of net yields (Rs ha−) of higher-value crops with other crops through crop diversification. Crop diversification promotes agricultural resilience, or the ability of an agroecosystem to return to its previous productive state after being disturbed, by increasing geographical and temporal biodiversity. Crop diversification is a national objective, driven by demand and based on needs, specific to each situation and that seeks a dynamic and iterative concept that incorporates spatial, temporal, value-added and complementary techniques to resources, as well as a move away from traditional and less remunerative crops (Figure. Liebman said that barriers related to government agricultural policy, market considerations and the dissemination of data dissuade farmers from adopting many of the diversification practices examined in the study.
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