Agricultural diversification and its impact on income and employment of the farmers: A review

Commercial crop diversity is currently an important approach for increasing agricultural profitability and reducing the risk of crop failure. Diversification can also be used to aid in poverty reduction, employment planning and environmental conservation. Growing a variety of crops does not guarantee increased returns, though it may help to stabilise them. Diversification leads to profit maximisation by taking use of complementary relationships. Agricultural diversification has been stressed at the national level as a strategy for increasing income and creating employment. Many countries have tried crop diversification to increase productivity and cultivate high value crops in order to address the challenges of a globalising agricultural market as well as the expanding and changing requirements of the people, with favourable results. These countries are gradually diversifying their crop sectors in favour of high-value items including fruits, vegetables and spices. Here, we review this under three main sections: the impact of agricultural diversification on farm income, the impact of agricultural diversification on employment and the factors influencing the implementation of crop diversification.