Crop Diversification in the Asia-Pacific region - United Nations in ...

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other hand, the size of an average holding is smallest in the Region, and the land to man ratiohas declined rapidly over the years. The per capita agricultural land available in the Asia-Pacific Region in 1961 was 0.35 ha, which declined to 0.27 in 1988 and further reduced to0.25 ha in 1997. A further decline in land availability is inevitable due to urban developmentand industrialization in many of those countries, leading to unprofitable units for cropproduction.Crop production can be increased by increasing the extents of agricultural land,which as evident from the above becomes an impossible task. The other alternative is tobring additional land under cultivation by expanding into marginal lands in differentcountries, but these have been almost exhausted and even with heavy investment may remainmarginal. Hence, of the available options, increase in intensity of cultivation and in yieldsper unit area are the only available options to meet future food needs to feed an everincreasing population.Technologies continue to be developed in various countries that will have an impacton future crop production. Most of these technologies are directed towards increase in yielddue to less land availability. In the future, therefore, increases in food production to enhancefood and nutrition security have to be achieved through intensive cultivation and high yieldand to a minor extent through increase in land areas. Over 75 percent of the high yieldincreases will arise from improvement of the yield of crops, with the balance from expansionof land area and cropping intensities.In the future the potential for yield improvement will be through technologicalinnovations. The potential yield increases are likely to be greater in the developing countriesthan in the developed countries. It could be argued that the yields in the developed countrieshave reached optimum levels due to the full exploitation of the available technologies, a"technology fatigue", whereas the yields in the developing countries are always lower thanthe potential yield under experimental conditions. The yield gaps, which exist in most cropsand the actual volumes at varying levels in different countries, point to the need fortechnologies which are less expensive. Estimates indicate that the yields, obtained in the lessdeveloped countries are about half to one third of those of the developed countries and evenwithin the Region wide variations are observed. Therefore, there is much scope to increasethe yield of crops.There is a school of thought that the majority of small-scale farmers could be liftedout of poverty without the use of modern technologies such as improved seed, fertilizer andcrop protection chemicals. They believe that soil fertility could be increased by organicmanures, farmer bred and maintained indigenous varieties, biological or mechanical controlof pests, diseases and weeds and human power to carry out farm operations. Although thelow input sustainable agriculture (LISA) is getting popular in some industrialized countriesits direct transfer to developing countries will have some resistance. With the presentchanges in the labour market and global trade, it cannot be applied and may not be relevantto the Asia-Pacific Region.3. CONCEPT OF CROP DIVERSIFICATIONCrop diversification can be a useful means to increase crop output under differentsituations. Crop diversification can be approached in two ways. The main form and the157
commonly understood concept is the addition of more crops to the existing cropping system,which could be referred to as horizontal diversification. For instance, cultivation of fieldcrops in rice fields or growing various types of other crops in uplands have been defined ascrop diversification. However, this type of crop diversification means the broadening of thebase of the system, simply by adding more crops to the existing cropping system utilizingtechniques such as multiple cropping techniques coupled with other efficient managementpractices. The systems of multiple cropping have been able to increase food productionpotential to over 30 t/ha, with an increase of the cropping intensity by 400-500 percent. Theother type of crop diversification is vertical crop diversification, in which various otherdownstream activities are undertaken. This could be illustrated by using any crop species,which could be refined to manufactured products, such as fruits, which are canned ormanufactured into juices or syrups as the case may be. Vertical crop diversification willreflect the extent and stage of industrialization of the crop. It has to be noted that cropdiversification takes into account the economic returns from different crops. This is verydifferent to the concept of multiple cropping in which the cropping in a given piece of land ina given period is taken into account. Besides the above, some other terminologies are alsoused to define crop diversification. There are terms such as "crop substitution" and "cropadjustment". It is necessary to indicate here that crop substitution and adjustment are linkedto the main concept of crop diversification and are strategies often used to maximize profit ofgrowing varieties of crops. The level of diversification will also be different in variouscountries. Diversification at farm level will involve growing of several crops for achievingself-sufficiency, but it may be a totally different approach at the national level. Cropdiversification at national level will demand more resources and require selection andmanagement of a specific crop or a group of crops sold freshly or value added to achievehigher profits.There are several advantages of crop diversification, which could be listed as follows;• Comparatively high net return from crops.• Higher net returns per unit of labour.• Optimization of resource use.• Higher land utilization efficiency.• Increased job opportunities.In order to achieve the above benefits the process of diversification should bechanged from very simple forms of crop rotations, to intensive systems such as relaycropping and intercropping or specialization by diversifying into various crops, where theoutput and processing etc., could be different. This process could be similar at farm level andnational level.4. CROP INTENSIFICATIONAs stated earlier, primary constraints to achieving food security are the low yield perunit area, high population pressure, and negligible scope for expansion of the area of land forcultivation. Under these circumstances available options will be crop intensification anddiversification through the use of modern technologies, especially seeds, fertilizer, irrigation,mechanization of agricultural production, post-harvest processing, storage, marketing anddevelopment of new technologies by research.158
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RAP PUBLICATION: 2001/03CROP DIVERS
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CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN THEASIA-PAC
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13. INTENSIFICATION OF CROP DIVERSI
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INTRODUCTORY REMARKSMinas K. Papade
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New opportunities that would benefi
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CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN BANGLADESHM
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(CDP) during 1990/95 in 125 Thanas
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SlName of Crops1 Aus:HYVLocalTable
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Table 4. Trade of Crops/products (I
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through development projects implem
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y the terminal year of the Fifth Pl
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cropping. This has only been possib
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process and export those labour int
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g) restoration/improvement of soil
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8. RECOMMENDATIONSConsidering the i
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enthusiasm of the farmers in their
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3.3 The Formation and Development o
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carried out for years, guarantees t
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environment protection. Special att
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2. CROP PRODUCTION AND ECONOMICS SC
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What is most notable is the change
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8.36 m/ha involved in the area shif
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fact that the area shares of the do
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country. Therefore, a judicious use
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5.3 Emerging Technology and Crop Di
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7. CONCLUSIONSIndia, being a vast c
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Table 3. All India: Temporal Change
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Table 5. All India: Temporal Change
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CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN JAPANMasa I
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production, these ratios were deter
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soybean using paddy fields should c
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food industry have sharply increase
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7. CONCLUSIONSThe Japanese socio-ec
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Figure 2. Change of Rice Productivi
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Figure 4. Aid Provided by Major Cou
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The Natural Rubber (NR) industry co
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About 78 percent of the rubber grow
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should be attractive to justify the
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REFERENCESAnon. 1990. Proceedings o
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Table 3. Agriculture Land Use in Sa
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Table 7. Paddy Production, 1985-199
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Table 10. Imports and Exports of Fr
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Table 14. Exports and Imports of Pr
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CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN NEPALK. C.
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We know hill farmers face many prob
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Table 2. Growth of Agricultural Com
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3. PATTERN OF CROP DIVERSIFICATIONN
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With regard to success stories of c
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5. CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND PR
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It recognizes the need for a differ
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CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN THE PHILIPP
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2.3 Yield Per Hectare of Agricultur
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In coconut, diversification means t
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were used in the preparation of the
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There are a variety of factors that
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Table 1. Production Area of Commerc
Page 114 and 115: Table 3. Yield (tonnes) Per Hectare
Page 116 and 117: Table 5. Selected Macroeconomic and
Page 118 and 119: Table 7. Dominant Rice Cropping Pat
Page 120 and 121: 1.2 Soils in the Crop Diversificati
Page 122 and 123: Table 1. Major Crops, Their Extents
Page 124 and 125: drained and rice on poorly drained
Page 126 and 127: Figure 3. Schematic Representation
Page 128 and 129: The potato production in the up cou
Page 130 and 131: Table 6 clearly shows that there is
Page 132 and 133: In addition to the above scenario,
Page 134 and 135: 6. GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND STRATEGI
Page 136 and 137: Panabokke, C.R. 1996. Soils and agr
Page 138 and 139: y promoting diversified crops inste
Page 140 and 141: Over the past few years, agricultur
Page 142 and 143: Land TenureMore than half of the Th
Page 144 and 145: The New theory is a novel approach
Page 146 and 147: Mushrooms: nang-fah mushroom (Pleur
Page 148 and 149: - Farmers can sell their rice at a
Page 150 and 151: In order to maintain the growth rat
Page 152 and 153: REFERENCESAthipanan, Withaya. 1995.
Page 154 and 155: CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN VIET NAMNgu
Page 156 and 157: 3. PATTERNS OF CROP DIVERSIFICATION
Page 158 and 159: the contour with mulching using ric
Page 160 and 161: development of new crop varieties a
Page 162 and 163: • Cultivated and growing area und
Page 166 and 167: 4.1 Crop NutritionA major contribut
Page 168 and 169: increased from 130 million ha to 15
Page 170 and 171: in tobacco nurseries. These also he
Page 172 and 173: past experience. A sustainable prog
Page 174 and 175: diversification, taking into accoun
Page 176 and 177: The major outputs are:- Integration
Page 178 and 179: • Database and information materi
Page 180 and 181: • Business plans have been formul
Page 182 and 183: minimize such losses. The developme
Page 184 and 185: LIST OF PARTICIPANTSBANGLADESHM. En
Page 186 and 187: SRI LANKAH.P.M. GunasenaDirectorPos
Page 188 and 189: FAOR.B. SinghAssistant Director-Gen
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