Although North America isn't known as a hotspot for
crop plant diversity, the inventory uncovered nearly 4,600 CWR in the United States, including close relatives of globally important food crops such as sunflower, bean, sweet potato, and strawberry.
Not exact matches
Generally speaking, the wild relatives of
crops harbor high levels of genetic
diversity, which is very advantageous in the wild, where the
plants are subject to ever - changing growing conditions.
Organic farming puts carbon back into soils by keeping them covered with
plants, increasing
crop diversity, composting and carefully planned grazing.
It is about supporting a system of sustainable agricultural management that promotes soil health and fertility through the use of such methods as
crop rotation and cover
cropping, which nourish
plants, foster species
diversity, help combat climate change, prevent damage to valuable water resources, and protect farmers and farmersâ $ ™ families from exposure to harmful chemicals.
A research project funded by the European Union found that the
diversity of landscape and farming systems was greater in organic farms, regarding land use types,
crops, livestock,
plantings (hedges, solitary shrubs, trees) and flora.
The limited availability and input of nitrogen, the application of mechanical and thermal weed control and more diverse
crop rotations and a higher
crop diversity lead to more favourable conditions for many wild
plant species.
«Many food security problems revolve around maintaining pollinator
diversity to provide services to
crops or wild
plants and designing landscapes to provide living conditions for pollinators,» Biesmeijer says.
«The wild relatives of
crop plants are the most promising reserves of genetic
diversity,» say Eric Bishop von Wettberg, a
plant biologist at the University of Vermont.
The US National Research Council claims in a report published last month that rich nations should spend much more on safeguarding genetic
diversity in the world's
crop plants.
The Global
Crop Diversity Trust has said the planned bulldozing of the field collection will «forever tarnish a cause that generations of Russian
plant scientists have lived and, quite literally, died to protect.»
That was the conclusion drawn from a two - year study of 18 cover -
crop treatments, ranging in
diversity from one to eight
plant species.
Fowler is the executive director of the Global
Crop Diversity Trust, an organization that seeks to preserve the genetic diversity of plants in se
Diversity Trust, an organization that seeks to preserve the genetic
diversity of plants in se
diversity of
plants in seed banks.
For example,
plant breeders working to develop
crops that can resist pests and diseases or higher temperatures often look to the broad range of
plants and traditional
crops in primary regions of
diversity as sources of useful traits for
crop improvement.
By encouraging farmers to continue
planting just a handful of
crop strains, critics say widespread use of a few varieties of GMO
crops might limit genetic
diversity and thus the ability to survive in altered form when pests or other hazards unexpectedly arrive.
Rich nations should spend more on safeguarding genetic
diversity in
crop plants or they will jeopardise the world's food supply, warns the US National Research Council in a report published last week.
«
Plant diversity alleviates the effects of flooding on
crops.»
Dr Shepherd is additionally co-convenor of an extensive pan-African network of
crop scientists and virologists that is carrying out the world's largest ongoing
plant pathogenic virus
diversity studies.
Multi-species cover
crops add to the biological
diversity of soils — and as
diversity increases, the incidences of
plant diseases and pests are reduced.
Research interests include
plant - pathogen interactions,
crop genetics and genomics, genome sequencing, Brassicas, structural variation,
diversity genomics, methylation
The interdependence among organisms and their environments sustains the conditions needed for survival by all living creatures: clean air and water,
crop pollination, pest control, climate regulation, soil nutrients, and a
diversity of
plants and creatures, among other things.
Rather than
planting all of the same
crop in a large area (picture the typical cornfield), commercial (and backyard) growers see improvement when they imitate the
diversity found in the natural world, alternating rows with a complementary
crop.
Using genomic technologies — those that examine the entirety of available genetic
diversity in individual
plants or animals and populations of those individuals — scientists can identify beneficial genetic traits and bring together new combinations of genes that enable
crops and animals to perform well in specific environments.
With 9 billion people to feed by 2050 and with
crops facing increased stress from rising temperatures and drought,
plant breeders must marshal all of the available
crop diversity to continuously develop new varieties of wheat, maize, rice, and other foods.
«There is a great urgency to safeguard
crop diversity,» says Marie Haga, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, who notes that diversity is lost every day, both in the field as well as in many of the world's plant gene ba
crop diversity,» says Marie Haga, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, who notes that diversity is lost every day, both in the field as well as in many of the world's plant ge
diversity,» says Marie Haga, executive director of the Global
Crop Diversity Trust, who notes that diversity is lost every day, both in the field as well as in many of the world's plant gene ba
Crop Diversity Trust, who notes that diversity is lost every day, both in the field as well as in many of the world's plant ge
Diversity Trust, who notes that
diversity is lost every day, both in the field as well as in many of the world's plant ge
diversity is lost every day, both in the field as well as in many of the world's
plant gene banks.
By contrast, control fields were
planted to a greater
diversity of
crops and employed an array of management practices to control corn rootworm (Table 1).
- Designing a garden / field to encourage
diversity and health - Spatial planning - Companion
planting - Succession
planting · Soil Health Basics for Organic Systems - Microbial life - Compost - Compost teas - Cover
Cropping
Plant genetic
diversity also has the potential to provide traits that can help meet future challenges, such as the need to adapt
crops to changing climatic conditions or outbreaks of disease.»
Wild
plant species have greater resistance to disease than farmed
crops; a decrease in genetic
diversity may result in a greater risk of food loss due to epidemics.
They stress the importance of maintaining a
diversity within each
crop, because: «
Plant genetic
diversity also has the potential to provide traits that can help meet future challenges, such as the need to adapt
crops to changing climatic conditions or outbreaks of disease.»
They use
crop rotation and
diversity of
plant and animal species to making everything stronger through heterogeneity.
To counter this shrinking pool of genetic
diversity in seeds, some home growers and farmers are focusing on growing, breeding, and saving seeds from heirloom
plants and
crops that are adapted to specific climates and conditions, and that can be open pollinated in order to save the next generation of seeds.
Weeds as ecological and climate change opportunists The resilience of weeds is due to their genetic
diversity, something that is deliberately bred out of our industrialized
crop plants in the interest of increased yields with large - scale genetic uniformity.
As an agricultural practice, agroecology mimics natural processes to deliver self - sustaining farming that grows a greater
diversity of
crops, drastically reduces artificial inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics) and recycles nutrients (
plant and animal waste as manure).