This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Polyculture is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
Polyculture is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space, in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large stands of single crops, or monoculture. It includes crop rotation, multi-cropping, intercropping, companion planting, beneficial weeds, and alley cropping.
Polyculture, though it often requires more labor, has several advantages over monoculture:
- The diversity of crops avoids the susceptibility of monocultures to disease. For example, a study in China reported in Nature showed that planting several varieties of rice in the same field increased yields by 89%, largely because of a dramatic (94%) decrease in the incidence of disease, which made pesticides redundant.
- The greater variety of crops provides habitat for more species, increasing local biodiversity. This is one example of Reconciliation Ecology, or accommodating biodiversity within human landscapes.
Polyculture is one of the principles of permaculture.
See also
- Agroecology
- Aquaponics
- Beneficial weeds
- Companion planting
- Forest gardening
- Heirloom plant
- Home gardens
- Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture
- Nurse crop
- gardens
External links
- Crop rotation and polyculture
- Polycultures in the Brazilian drylands
- Polyculture and disease prevention
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 31 August 2008, at 18:00.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Polyculture".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.