Crop diversity in organic farming; why is it important?

Crop diversity is one of the techniques which are used in organic farming. Crop diversity mainly focuses on cultivating different varieties of crops in a single farm land.

An important aspect of crop diversity is that water wastage will be minimum. Apart from the main crop if we are cultivating any secondary crops, the water we are providing to the main crop are also utilized by the secondary crops.

For example, in southern part of India people mostly cultivate red spinaches under the shades of coconut trees. This method helps us to produce two yields in single harvest. Also the nutrients provided to the main crop, are equally shared.

The brighter side of crop diversity

· Ensuring food security

Food security is an important concept in farming. As farmers, our aim is not only to produce high quality nutritive food products but we should also ensure that they are reaching to useful people.

Are the hungry ones getting their part?

Crop diversity often ensures food security. By cultivating different crops, we are making sure that the consistency in the food supply chain is maintained. The condition of our society is deteriorating day by day.

With limited resources we must ensure that hunger is eliminated. Even if the problems like rise in population, diminishing resources and degrading environment stand as a barrier, we must overcome them and ensure that food supplies are provided at stable prices.

· Adapting climate change

Climate change is a serious issue which must be considered while we grow crops. The climate and their variations are changing every year. One cannot correctly predict what the climate would be in the coming years. The Inter-governmental panel on climate change reported that the heat we experience is going to increase in the coming decades. So the pattern of agriculture will be totally different from now. So we must practice adaptive agriculture to sustain. We must adopt new crops that can withstand the climate change and also has higher nutritive value. Crops which would cop up with the heat, drought, flood and extreme weather conditions should be cultivated.

· Ensuring sustainable agriculture

Bringing varieties in the crop culture is one of the strategies of crop diversity. Framers have complete freedom to find their own ways to practice agriculture which increases productivity and decreases the degradation of environment. The globally accepted conservation system, ‘ex situ’ focuses in protecting the available resources and makes them equally available for the farmers. Even though this initiative is hard to implement, the environmental protection groups recognizes the importance of this act and supports them to work for success.

· Reducing environmental degradation

The crop varieties that produces yield when more chemical additives are added are dangerous to the economy. By using genetic diversity crops we can control Environmental degradation to an extent. By developing crops which has the shield to resist insects and pesticides, it mitigates the use of harmful pesticides. New technology is evolving and scientists are working to develop drought resistant plants which can save a good amount of water which we use for irrigation.

· Protecting nutritional security

Apart from quantity, crop diversity aims at producing quality yields. Bringing up crops that contain high value of vitamins and minerals by providing additional nutrients helps us to maintain the quality balance in our ecosystem.

This variety mainly focuses in increasing vitamin and iron contents in the crops and hence decreasing the amount of anti-nutritional and toxic factors

· Reducing poverty

Poverty is the major cause of the deaths of 30% people on earth. The growth in agriculture directly contributes to the growth in the economy. This economic growth is a benefit to many poor people around the world. Increase in the agricultural economy helps to decrease the poverty to 70% as most of the people living in rural areas practice agriculture as a basic living source.

Also, implementation of higher value crops increases their demand in the market which is subsistent to low income farming families.