As climates around the world become harsher and more unpredictable, concerns about our world’s food security are growing.
The amount of staple crops such as maize and wheat is already declining in low-latitude tropical and arid regions such as the African drylands and parts of the Mediterranean. Rich countries are far from immune. Australia saw yields decline by nearly 30% between 1990 and 2015 due to reduced rainfall.
While analyzing nutritional diversity in 2011, ecologist Morgan Rowell, now at Clark University, stumbled upon a possible technique that could help stabilize crop size.
This once common practice is now only used by small farms in places like the Caucasus, the Greek Islands and the Horn of Africa. Although very simple, most of the agroecology community is not familiar with it.
However, farmers have been using this method for more than 3,000 years in at least 27 countries. This may have caused agriculture to appear in the first place.
The method is to grow grains (a complex mixture of grains that can include rice, millet, wheat, rye, barley and more) and harvest them all together or use them as a crop
Rowell and colleagues at Cornell University reviewed previous work showing that maslin fillers provide greater stability under a variety of conditions. By changing the composition of species each season, farmers can act against the effects of climate without the need for further intervention.
“It’s this sentient being that is constantly evolving. It works on its own, outside of the farmer’s control, to respond to whatever condition it could be. So no matter what happens, you can make bread with it,” Rowell said.
The process allows the environment to choose which species will thrive. If environmental conditions continue to change in one direction, the next season’s seed mix will also change in that direction. It is faster than evolution. Ethnobotanist Alex McCalvay explains that if you have a vulnerable species currently in the New York Botanical Garden, it takes a long time to adapt.
When drought occurs, the resulting crop will contain, for example, more drought-tolerant varieties of barley and less wheat. But if there is a sudden rain, the wheat is still there to control it.
The researchers recommend moving away from monoculture, which can be beneficial in many situations because growing more than one type of crop is better for pest management, fertilization, wildlife health and sustainability. However, multi-culture is problematic for large-scale farming that relies on machinery for harvesting and processing.
The scope of operation can be expanded because the same machine can be used to harvest each type of grain in the Maslin mix. Modern industry also has experience in separating grains on a large scale.
Maslin still delivers many of the ecological benefits of multiple cultures that include completely different plant species, such as disease resistance and pest control, requiring less reliance on pesticides that cause all kinds of damage to wildlife.
This review was published in the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development.
Source: ScienceAlert
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