Monoculture
[MON-ə-cull-cher]
Part of speech: noun
Origin: French, early 20th century
1.
The practice of growing a single crop at a time
2.
A single crop grown in an area
Examples of Monoculture in a sentence
"Corn is such a valuable commodity that many farmers practice monoculture of the crop."
"The swampland was overgrown with the monoculture, and no other crops could thrive."
About Monoculture
Mono = single. Practicing monoculture means growing only one plant, so a farmer who is against this will grow a wide variety of crops. Farming has become big business, with large farms growing single crops dominating the agricultural world. But your backyard garden, with a mixture of anything you feel like growing, is a perfect example of polyculture, or the cultivation of many different crops.
Did you Know?
Today, you’re probably feasting on a cornucopia of Thanksgiving classics, like potatoes or green beans, but this agricultural term hones in on just one. “Monoculture” can be applied to both the practice of growing a single crop and the name of the crop itself. Monoculture has allowed farmers to increase their efficiency by specializing in one crop — say, those yams you devoured at the dinner table. Polyculture is the practice of growing many crops, and oligoculture rotates between just a few.
