Question

Crop rotation is an important part of organic farming. Why is monocropping problematic?
A. The crop is vulnerable to organized crop thieves.
B. It encourages the build of disease and pests that destroy that particular crop.
C. It does not use minerals.
D. It is expensive.

Answer 1

Hint: Crop rotation is a system of cultivation of different crops on a particular piece of land over time, reducing the dependence on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. The crop to be grown is carefully chosen to ensure soil nutrients are sustained, pest populations are controlled, weeds are suppressed and soil health is built.

Complete answer:
Cash crops such as vegetables cover crops such as grasses and cereals and green manures (often legumes) are cultivated cyclically in a crop rotation. Crop rotation makes the land more productive and more environmentally sustainable. It improves the financial benefits of a farm by increasing productivity and reducing the costs of chemical inputs. Crop rotation improves the fertility of the soil by improving the physical and chemical conditions.
Monocropping: The agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land, without rotation through other crops is called monocropping. Popular crops grown using monocropping techniques are corn, soybeans, and wheat. Farmers plant the only one crop which benefits them using the same seed, pest control, machinery, and growing method.
When the farmers plant the same crop in the same place every year, this kills all the nutrients from the soil and leaves the soil weakened making it unable to support healthy plant growth. This makes the soil structure and quality so poor that farmers are forced to use chemical fertilizers to encourage plant growth and fruit production.
The depletion of the nutrients in the soil, the use of pesticides, and not using multiple crops are three major reasons why monocropping leads to environmental issues.
In monocropping cultivation, the plants become weak in progeny every following year, which increases the buildup of diseases. As the same crop is cultivated year after year, the pests become resistant to pesticides and get accumulated in the soil and destroy the crops.

So, the option (B) is the correct answer.

Note:
Keeping the disadvantages of monocropping in mind, it’s better to switch cultivation from monocropping to multiple cropping (crop rotation). Crop rotation has the following advantages: Increases soil fertility, soil nutrients, and crop yields. Reduces soil erosion, pollution and stress of weeds.