Monoculture

( Article Type: Explanation )

Monoculture describes the repeated growing of a single crop on a given piece of land over and over again. This usually leads to exhaustion of nitrogen in the soil and the build up of pests and diseases, which would normally be wiped out by crop rotation.

An example of this would be the American wheat prairies where there are tens of thousands of acres under wheat every year. One new pest or disease could wipe out the entire crop.

The lesson from nature is that there is a need for diversity and variance to ensure that there is sufficient flexibility to deal with problems that may occur.