Summary
Vandermeer and Perfecto present a theoretical argument that contemporary crop breeding, conducted predominantly in monocultures, produces varieties poorly optimised for intercropping systems widely used by smallholder and traditional farmers. Drawing on fundamental ecological and evolutionary theory, they demonstrate that selection pressures in monoculture breeding favour reduced inter-species competition—traits that prove suboptimal when crops are grown in polyculture association. This work identifies a systemic mismatch between dominant breeding platforms and the actual farming systems employed by a substantial global farming population.
UK applicability
The findings are pertinent to UK agroecology and regenerative farming discourse, particularly where intercropping and diversified systems are promoted as resilience and sustainability measures. However, the UK's industrial agriculture infrastructure and breeding platforms are heavily monoculture-optimised; redirecting germplasm development toward polyculture-adapted varieties would require institutional and policy shifts.
Key measures
Ecological and evolutionary theory applied to breeding platform efficacy; competitive trait evolution in monoculture versus polyculture contexts
Outcomes reported
The paper theoretically demonstrates that exclusive monoculture-based crop breeding leads to inherent sub-optimality in environmental utilisation of cropping systems. The authors argue this mismatch disadvantages smallholder and traditional farmers who employ intercropping practices.
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