November 2022
‘The Crop of the Future’
Poor soil fertility remains an obstacle to improving food production.
Experts at the recent Global Breadfruit Summit are making the push for more collaborative efforts and innovative solutions for sustainable food systems.
Agroforestry Net, Inc Director Dr Craig Elevitch says agroforestry practices have over the years shown their value in improving soil ecosystems while simultaneously diversifying revenue sources for farmers.
He explained that the complementary nature of agroforestry practices tend to promote mixed farming practices which keeps nutrients and water in the soil instead of stripping them out and therefore increase the overall productivity of farms in comparison to monoculture.
He told participants attending the Summit that the pathway to replanting breadfruit in the Pacific must prioritize systems that “make a little more sense economically and efficiency wise.”
“My question has always been how do we do that? How do we innovate beyond monocultures, beyond highly labor intensive or knowledge intensive systems? Because many people are just assuming all that’s going to happen.”
Dr Craig Elevitch also said the agricultural industry needed to become more resourceful: “We need to be more innovative than ever before because we’re trying to integrate regenerative processes – integrate many crops together – which confirms a regeneration of the natural environment biodiversity but also meet out cost of production goals which are necessary to run a business.”