Increasing crop diversity

Many developing countries are trying to promote agricultural diversification among smallholders because they feel that smallholders are too dependent upon a narrow range of crops.

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends promoting crop diversification in agricultural systems, including new plants with potential value as food crops.

1. Enhancing diversity
2. Commercializing agricultural products
3. Updating methods of agricultural production

1. Selective breeding of food plants
2. Selective breeding of fibrous plants
3. Planning new cash crops
4. Growing diversified cash crops
5. Exploring hybrid seed varieties
6. Diversifying nutritious protein crops
7. Diversifying dry land crops
8. Developing transgenic crops
9. Developing pesticide and herbicide tolerant crops

1. Diversifying rice products
2. Arranging comprehensive food variety
3. Advancing integrated rural development

1. Preserving genetic diversity in cultivated plants
2. Managing non-timber forest resources
3. Farming with trees
4. Breeding plants

1. Limiting range of farm crops

1. Limiting crop variety

1. Overdependence on few crop species
2. Inadequate farm crop diversity
3. Declining breeds of cultivated plants

1. Variety
2. Unproductivity
3. Underproduction
4. Short-range
5. Overproduction
6. Inappropriateness
7. Diversity

1. Healthy Farm Practices: Crop Rotation and Diversity
2. Increasing Crop Diversity
3. Why Is Crop Diversity Important?
4. Increasing Crop Diversity Mitigates Weather Variations and Improves Yield Stability
5. THE LOSS OF CROP BIODIVERSITY IN THE CHANGING WORLD