Why is “monoculture” as a productive agricultural system not sustainable in the long term?
Monoculture farming continues to be widely practiced today, even though it can lead to a range of negative consequences. Moving toward more diverse cropping systems can improve resilience to climate change, support long-term agricultural sustainability, and help reduce overall production costs.
What is Monoculture?
Monoculture is a widely used term in agriculture for the past few decades. The rise in industrialisation has led to the commodification of agricultural production and increased efforts to boost the productivity of specialised crops (Rodríguez-Cohard et al., 2025). A few examples of this practice include crops such as Paddy, Wheat, Soybean, Coffee, and so on. The term Monoculture is defined as “crop monoculture is also used to describe large areas planted to the same crop species.” (Cook et al., 2004). Additionally, Franco (et al., 2022) discussed that monoculture prevails across time, which is growing the same crop consecutively over multiple years. Monoculture is the growing of a single species of crop over an area consecutively for multiple years.
The trend of Monoculture
Diversified farming systems constituted the bulk of the agricultural production in Europe until the 1960s (de Roest et al. 2018). However, monoculture has been widely adopted since the 1970s, coupled with an increase in the utilisation of novel technologies such as pesticides, fertilisers, and mechanisation. The monoculture of food crops has given the benefits (Kaur et al., 2024):
- Increased yields
- Easy management
- Single crop knowledge
While the industrialized agricultural systems have delivered high yields, they have significantly led to negative outcomes for biodiversity, climate, and the environment due to intensive chemical usage and natural resource degradation.
Monoculture In the EU
According to the recent report from the European Union (2026), it has been found that of all farms, 58.3% are categorised as crop specialist farms, i.e., farms that grow a single species of crop. It was found that only 19.3% of the farms practiced diverse cropping methods, leaving the remaining 26% under livestock. The report follows the trend of monoculture, with more than half of the farms in the EU growing a single crop of
- Cereals
- Oil Seed
- Olive
- Fruits
- Vineyards.
In the EU, a recent statistical report on agriculture states that a significant amount of farms are under a specialised crop regime.
The negative impacts of monoculture
Growing a single crop species may prove to be economically beneficial in the short-term with significant impacts on the surrounding environment, climate, and biodiversity. The growth of a single crop consistently over time may lead to loss of biodiversity for insects, birds, and soil microbes (Benton et al., 2003). Additionally, monoculture cropping systems are not feasible for climate mitigation, as they do not enable carbon sequestration within soils and may further lead to soil degradation. (Zhao et al., 2024) have discussed that monocultures that lack diversity lead to
- Limited carbon storage
- Ecosystem degradation
- Reduced long-term resilience.
Overall, under the current climate change regime, continuing monoculture leads to long-term impacts on the environment, climate, and biodiversity.
Increased Vulnerability and Costs
Monoculture leads to increased cost and pest vulnerability to the crop. The presence of a consistent and sufficient food supply, along with the lack of natural predators due to the loss of biodiversity, leads to worsening pest issues (Salaheen et al., 2019). The cost of controlling pests through pesticides increases under monoculture. Additionally, the continuous monoculture may lead to depletion of soil nutrients, leading to additional costs for farmers due to the requirement of fertilisers (Kaur et al., 2024). Monoculture leads to
- Pest attack vulnerability
- Increased fertiliser usage
- Soil degradation
- Increased Costs
The negative outcomes of monoculture cropping systems may lead to long-term financial losses and reduced crop yields.
Alternatives to Monoculture by betterSoil
Crop Diversification is crucial to shift away from the practices of monoculture and to embrace sustainable farming over environmental degradation. It was found by Benton et al (2003) that increased heterogeneity in cropping plans leads to increased biodiversity within the farms. Additionally, the adoption of heterogeneity within cropping plans further increases
- Resilience of crops to pests and diseases
- Contributes to soil health
- Enhances soil nutrients and organic carbon
- Enhances soil microbial activity
Based on this, BetterSoil has adopted agroforestry and crop rotation mechanisms to ensure diversity across space and time.
Conclusion
Overall, monoculture in agriculture remains significant to this day, despite the negative outcomes that arise from the cropping systems. Shifting of agricultural practices to embrace diversity within the cropping plans leads to better tackling climate change impacts, and ensures sustainable growing systems in the long term, and reduced costs. betterSoil has launched the digital product betterSoil Farm Assistant, which provides crop rotation planning for farmers aided with satellite data and agronomic principles (Introducing betterSoil’s Farm Assistant: A tool for Crop Rotation Management (CRM) Strategy | betterSoil ). Stay in touch for more updates on soil health and sustainable agriculture. Check out our services on our website.
References:
Benton, T.G., Vickery, J.A. and Wilson, J.D., 2003. Farmland biodiversity: is habitat heterogeneity the key?. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 18(4), pp.182–188.
Cook, R.J. and Weller, D.M., 2004. In defense of crop monoculture. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Crop Science Congress. Gosford, NSW: The Regional Institute Ltd.
De Roest, K., Ferrari, P. and Knickel, K., 2018. Specialisation and economies of scale or diversification and economies of scope? Assessing different agricultural development pathways. Journal of Rural Studies, 59, pp.222–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.04.013
Eurostat, 2026. Farms and farmland in the European Union – statistics: The evolution of farms and farmland between 2005 and 2020. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Farms_and_farmland_in_the_European_Union_-_statistics#The_evolution_of_farms_and_farmland_between_2005_and_2020
Franco, S., Pancino, B., Martella, A. and De Gregorio, T., 2022. Assessing the presence of a monoculture: from definition to quantification. Agriculture, 12(9), p.1506.
Kaur, S., Bedi, M., Singh, S., Kour, N., Bhatti, S.S., Bhatia, A., Kumar, M. and Kumar, R., 2024. Monoculture of crops: A challenge in attaining food security. In: Advances in Food Security and Sustainability, Vol. 9, pp.197–213. Elsevier.
Rodríguez-Cohard, J.C., Lombardo, P.B., Sánchez-Martínez, J.D. and Garrido-Almonacid, A., 2025. Territorial impacts of the monoculture-based agri-food industry: Comparative analyses on two continents. Applied Geography, 175, p.103489.
Salaheen, S. and Biswas, D., 2019. Organic farming practices: Integrated culture versus monoculture. In: Safety and Practice for Organic Food, pp.23–32. Academic Press.
Zhao, Y., Zhao, H., Kang, L., Li, M., Zhang, G. and Cao, Y., 2024. Beyond monocultures: Optimizing soil carbon sequestration with diverse planting strategies on the Loess Plateau. Catena, 246, p.108447.