Food Production, Conservation of Crop Plant Biodiversity and Environmental Protection in the Twenty-First Century: The Relevance of Tropical Cropping Systems

Abstract

It is now clear that crop production technology and improvement programmes which work in temperate climates for large-scale intensive monoculture, cannot simply be transferred unmodified to the tropics. Tropical agriculture is dominated by small-scale extensive farming systems. Meeting the food and agricultural needs in the region therefore depends on the improvement and diversification of the cropping systems. Tropical cropping systems contribute to the sustainability of ecosystems, enhance the conservation and utilization of local crop diversity for food and agriculture, and take advantage of locally variable conditions. However, tropical agriculture has been seriously threatened by the importation of exotic crop varieties and the diminution of local ones, by the use of heavy machinery and agrochemicals, and by population growth. In order to further enhance sustainable production, more attention should be given to economically and ecologically viable adaptive research and crop variety improvement for mixed systems.