In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monocultures increase ease and efficiency in planting, managing, and harvesting crops short-term, often with the help of machinery. However, monocultures are more susceptible to diseases or pest outbreaks long-term due to localized reductions in biodiversity and nutrient depletion. Crop diversity can be added both in time, as with a crop rotation or sequence, or in space, with a polyculture or intercropping. Monoculture practices have been linked via several pathways to negatively impact human health from a One Health perspective. These links include but are not limited to environmental degradation, increased pest and disease outbreaks, greater pesticide/herbicide use, and reductions in dietary diversity (associated with diet-related disease burden including cardiovascular disease and diabetes). Monocultures appear in contexts outside of agriculture and food production. Grass lawns are a common form of residential monocultures. Several monocultures, including single-species forest plantations, have become increasingly abundant throughout the tropics following market globalization, impacting local communities. Genetic monocultures refer to crops that have little to no genetic variation. This is achieved using cultivars, made through processes of propagation and selective breeding, and can make populations susceptible to diseases which can rapidly spread across large areas. This widespread susceptibility ultimately endangers food security for regions dependent on such food supply. Agroecological practices, silvo-pastoral systems, and mixed-species plantations are common alternatives to monoculture that help preserve biodiversity while maintaining productivity. These practices offer resilience to possible negative human and environmental health impacts.
Agriculture Agricultural monocultures refer to the practice of planting one crop species in a field. Monoculture is widely used in intensive farming and in organic farming. 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. Modern practices such as monoculture planting and the use of synthesized fertilizers have reduced the amount of additional land needed to produce food, called land sparing.
Note that the distinction between monoculture and polyculture is not the same as between monocropping and intercropping. The first two describe diversity in space, as does intercropping. Monocropping and crop rotation describe diversity over time.
Environmental impacts Monocultures of perennials, such as African palm oil, sugarcane, tea and pines, can change soil chemistry leading to soil acidification, degradation, and soil-borne diseases, ultimately having a negative impact on agricultural productivity and sustainability. The use of unregulated irrigation practices on popular monocultures, such as soy, can also lead to erosion and water loss. As soil health declines, use of synthetic fertilizers on monocultural fields increases, often having negative implications on human health via chemical run-off. For example, excess nitrogen from synthetic fertilizers can leach into ground and surface waters, leading to nitrate contamination of drinking water. This contamination is associated with serious health risks such as methemoglobinemia ("blue baby syndrome") and the formation of carcinogenic compounds such as nitrosamines within the human digestive system. Agricultural runoff can also degrade aquatic ecosystems through nutrient loading, which subsequently leads to eutrophication harmful algal blooms (HABs). This process can compromise water quality and safety as these blooms produce potent cyanotoxins such as microcystin, which can bioaccumulate in fish and shellfish. Human consumption can ultimately lead to liver damage, neurotoxicity, and gastrointestinal illness. In addition to soil depletion, monocultures can cause significant reductions in biodiversity due to unavailability of resources, native species displacement, and loss of genetic variation. Following large-scale oil palm plantations in Latin America, research has revealed extensive declines in mammal, bird, amphibian, and pollinator diversity, particularly in Colombia and Brazil. Due to insufficient biodiversity and population balance, monocultures are associated with higher rates of disease and pest outbreaks. In response, pesticides are widely applied to agricultural fields, further harming insect and pollinator diversity and human health. Increasing rotations of crop monocultures or using alternatives agricultural practices can help mitigate the risk of disease and attack.
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