Diversifying Cropping Systems

Today's crop farmers, with their prices global and their costs local, are ensnared in an ever-tightening profit squeeze. Many of them have begun seeking alternative crops that command higher prices or pay dividends by boosting the yields of rotational crops. Diversifying can soften impacts on environmental resources, spread farmers' economic risk, exploit profitable niche markets and-by creating new industries based on renewable agriculture resources-strengthen rural communities. This bulletin describes some of the many agronomic crop alternatives, with plentiful examples of on-farm successes.