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SYMPOSIUM PAPERS

Introduction

^a Alberta Agric., Food, and Rural Dev., RR 6, 17507 Fort Rd., Edmonton, AB, Canada T5B 4K3
^b Agric. and Agri-Food Can., 6000 C&E Trail, Lacombe, AB, Canada T4L 1W1
^c Univ. of Nebraska–Lincoln, 4502 Ave. I Panhandle REC, Scottsbluff, NE 69361-4939

* Corresponding author (stanford.blade{at}agric.gov.ab.ca)

Received for publication September 11, 2001.

	INTRODUCTION

TOP INTRODUCTION REFERENCES

 
THE FOLLOWING PAPERS were presented at the symposium "Crop Diversification in the Northern Great Plains Cropping Systems," held during the 1999 ASA-CSSA-SSSA annual meetings in Salt Lake City, UT.

Crop diversification refers to expansion in the number of crops grown in a region in the hope of increasing overall productivity and marketability (Small, 1999). The northern Great Plains were defined as the area bordered by Nebraska in the south, the western edge of Montana, the eastern edge of North and South Dakota, and the northern fringe of cultivation in western Canada. Current cropping systems in the northern Great Plains are directly influenced by the availability of water. The wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–fallow system has developed within a large part of the region to deal with this primary constraint.

The need for a crop diversification symposium for the northern Great Plains arose from two contrasting observations: (i) this region is recognized throughout the world for its fertile soils and focus on wheat production and (ii) there is economic instability in this region caused by extreme variability in seasonal temperatures and rainfall as well as price volatility created by natural disasters and overproduction. Research efforts at the turn of the last century identified summer fallowing as a suitable system for spring and winter wheat production (Peterson, 1996); the technology stabilized production and income by storing water for subsequent cereal crops. However, the basis for a sustainable cropping system has broadened since the adoption of the fallow-based land management system. Sustainable agricultural systems now must meet a number of criteria that increased diversification can help to achieve. A sustainable cropping system must incorporate several aspects: (i) productivity (maintaining or enhancing production), (ii) security (by reducing the level of production risk), (iii) protection (through the stewardship of natural resources), (iv) viability (by ensuring long-term economic survival), and (v) acceptability (adoption of farming principles and practices that agree with the values within both the agricultural sector and society at large). The symposium presented many new research developments, provided a forum to consider in detail our current understanding of crop diversification, and established the potential benefits and drawbacks for increased diversity in northern Great Plains cropping systems.

Contributors to the symposium verified the advantages of diversification in the five categories that we have identified. Diversifying the cropping system and reducing tillage provides many agronomic opportunities that include the addition of symbiotically fixed N in the system; conservation of organic matter and soil water; increase of biodiversity of soil flora and fauna; management of weed, disease, and insect pests; and diversified market opportunities with the inclusion of new crops in the cropping system. Papers on nutrient management, oilseed, and forage and pulse crops highlighted new work that described the role of fertility and inclusion of noncereal crops in the development of unique management opportunities and acceptable economic production within the new systems. The diversified systems increase biological security by decreasing some of the problems associated with continuous wheat–fallow systems, including decreased weed, disease, and insect problems. The only aspect that was not covered within the symposium was the social acceptability of diversified cropping systems. As agriculturalists, we know that agriculture and its practices are coming under increased scrutiny. We must communicate the opportunities for increased agricultural biodiversity and environmental sustainability associated with diversified agriculture to consumers, lobby groups, and policy makers.

The symposium incorporated a broad range of research activities focused on identifying opportunities and constraints to diversified crop production in the region. Although the symposium presentations were organized within both disciplines and commodity types, the most salient observation was that this is a research topic that must involve multidisciplinary cooperation. The challenge for the research community and adopters of the new technology is that new information (and the knowledge that is derived from available information) regarding diversification must be incorporated into a constantly changing and flexible model. This model must include the fact that crop diversification will put increased demands on producers. The new systems will emphasize increased knowledge management to deal with the production and marketing of diverse crops, integrated pest management strategies, and complex rotational systems.

This symposium has brought plant breeders and agronomists back to the ecological principles of agriculture. This is captured by Brookfield (1998), who described the "dynamism" of agrodiversity as "a constantly changing patchwork of relations between people, plants and the environment ... always coping with new problems, always finding new ways..." The 1999 "Crop Diversification in the Northern Great Plains Cropping Systems" symposium served as a platform for a wide range of researchers to recognize that developing a diversified agricultural production system in the region will require the combined efforts of all areas of expertise represented at this symposium.

	ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 
Thanks to symposium coordinators Dr. Adrian Johnston, Potash and Phosphate Institute, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, and Dr. Perry Miller, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, and to Dr. Bill Ocumpaugh, Texas A&M University, for his guidance and assistance during the planning of the symposium.

	REFERENCES

TOP INTRODUCTION REFERENCES

 

• Brookfield, H. 1998. Review of Zimmerer, K.S. (1996) Changing fortunes: Biodiversity and peasant livelihood in the Peruvian Andes. Ann. Am. Assoc. Geog. 88:180–182.
• Peterson, G.A. 1996. Cropping systems in the Great Plains. J. Prod. Agric. 9:140.
• Small, E. 1999. New crops for Canadian agriculture. p. 15–52. In J. Janick (ed.) Perspectives on new crops and new uses. ASHS Press, Alexandria, VA.

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