Crop

A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence.[1] When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponics. Crops may include macroscopic fungus (e.g. mushrooms) and marine macroalga (e.g. seaweed), some of which are grown in aquaculture.

For other uses, see Crop (disambiguation).
Domesticated plants
Crops drying in a home in Punjab, Pakistan

Most crops are harvested as food for humans or fodder for livestock. Some crops are gathered from the wild often in a form of intensive gathering (e.g. ginseng, yohimbe, and eucommia).

Important non-food crops include horticulture, floriculture and industrial crops. Horticulture crops include plants used for other crops (e.g. fruit trees). Floriculture crops include bedding plants, houseplants, flowering garden and pot plants, cut cultivated greens, and cut flowers. Industrial crops are produced for clothing (fiber crops e.g. cotton), biofuel (energy crops, algae fuel), or medicine (medicinal plants).

Important food crops
World production of crops by commodity group[2]

The importance of a crop varies greatly by region. Globally, the following crops contribute most to human food supply (values of kcal/person/day for 2013 given in parentheses): rice (541 kcal), wheat (527 kcal), sugarcane and other sugar crops (200 kcal), maize (corn) (147 kcal), soybean oil (82 kcal), other vegetables (74 kcal), potatoes (64 kcal), palm oil (52 kcal), cassava (37 kcal), legume pulses (37 kcal), sunflower seed oil (35 kcal), rape and mustard oil (34 kcal), other fruits, (31 kcal), sorghum (28 kcal), millet (27 kcal), groundnuts (25 kcal), beans (23 kcal), sweet potatoes (22 kcal), bananas (21 kcal), various nuts (16 kcal), soybeans (14 kcal), cottonseed oil (13 kcal), groundnut oil (13 kcal), yams (13 kcal).[3] Note that many of the globally apparently minor crops are regionally very important. For example, in Africa, roots & tubers dominate with 421 kcal/person/day, and sorghum and millet contribute 135 kcal and 90 kcal, respectively.[3]

World production of crops, main commodities[4]

In terms of produced weight, the following crops are the most important ones (global production in thousand metric tonnes):[5]

Crop200020132020
Sugarcane 1,256,3801,877,1101,870,246
Maize 592,4791,016,7401,171,332
Rice 599,355745,7101,264,410
Wheat 585,691713,183760,931
Potato 327,600368,096359,124

There are various methods of cropping that are used in the agricultural industry,[6] such as mono cropping, crop rotation, sequential cropping, and mixed intercropping.[7] Each method of cropping have their purposes and possibly disadvantages to them as well.[8] Himanshu Arora defines mono cropping as where a field only grows one specific crop year round.[6] Mono Cropping has its disadvantages, according to Himanshu Arora, such as the risk of the soil losing its fertility.[9] Following mono cropping, another method of cropping is relay cropping. According to the National Library of Medicine, relay cropping may solve a number of conflicts such as inefficient use of available resources, controversies in sowing time, fertilizer application, and soil degradation.[10] The result coming from the use of relay cropping is higher crop output.[11] In the United States, corn is the largest crop produced, and soybean follows in at second, according to the government of Alberta.[12] Referring to a map given by the Government of Alberta, the most popular region to grow these popular crops are in the inner states of the U.S., it is where the crops are most successful in output.[13]

See also

References
  1. "crop". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  2. World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2021. 2021. doi:10.4060/cb4477en. ISBN 978-92-5-134332-6. S2CID 240163091. Archived from the original on 2021-11-03. Retrieved 2021-12-13. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  3. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Statistics Division (2017). "FAOstats Food Supply - Crops Primary Equivalent".
  4. World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2021. 2021. doi:10.4060/cb4477en. ISBN 978-92-5-134332-6. S2CID 240163091. Archived from the original on 2021-11-03. Retrieved 2021-12-13. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  5. FAO 2015. FAO Statistical Pocketbook 2015, ISBN 978-92-5-108802-9, p. 28
  6. Arora, Himanshu (2017-10-06). "Types of Cropping Systems: Mono cropping; Crop Rotation; Sequential Cropping; Inter Cropping; Relay Cropping".
  7. "Types of Cropping Systems: Mono cropping; Crop Rotation; Sequential Cropping; Inter Cropping; Relay Cropping - Civilsdaily". 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
  8. "Types of Cropping Systems: Mono cropping; Crop Rotation; Sequential Cropping; Inter Cropping; Relay Cropping - Civilsdaily". 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
  9. "Types of Cropping Systems: Mono cropping; Crop Rotation; Sequential Cropping; Inter Cropping; Relay Cropping - Civilsdaily". 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
  10. Tanveer, Mohsin; Anjum, Shakeel Ahmad; Hussain, Saddam; Cerdà, Artemi; Ashraf, Umair (March 2017). "Relay cropping as a sustainable approach: problems and opportunities for sustainable crop production". Environmental Science and Pollution Research International. 24 (8): 6973–6988. doi:10.1007/s11356-017-8371-4. ISSN 1614-7499. PMID 28083744. S2CID 207283489.
  11. Tanveer, Mohsin; Anjum, Shakeel Ahmad; Hussain, Saddam; Cerdà, Artemi; Ashraf, Umair (March 2017). "Relay cropping as a sustainable approach: problems and opportunities for sustainable crop production". Environmental Science and Pollution Research International. 24 (8): 6973–6988. doi:10.1007/s11356-017-8371-4. ISSN 1614-7499. PMID 28083744. S2CID 207283489.
  12. "US Crops – Where Are They Grown?". www.alberta.ca. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
  13. "US Crops – Where Are They Grown?". www.alberta.ca. Retrieved 2022-12-16.

Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Crops.
  • Sleper, David A.; Poehlman, John M. (2006). Breeding Field Crops. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9780813824284. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
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