Crop diversity between 20 and 90 percent crop losses in the Congo. The FAO emergency relief and rehabilitation program is assisting vulnerable returnee populations in the African Great Lakes Region through mass propagation and distribution of CMD resistant or highly tolerant cassava. A well known occurrence of disease susceptibility in crops lacking diversity concerns the 'Gros Michel', a seedless banana that saw world marketing in the 1940s. As the market demand became high for this particular cultivar, growers and farmers began to use the Gros Michel banana almost exclusively. Genetically, these bananas are clones, and because of this lack of genetic diversity,
Catch crop Catch crop In agriculture, a catch crop is a fast-growing crop that is grown between successive plantings of a main crop. For example, radishes that mature from seed in 25–30 days can be grown between rows of most vegetables, and harvested long before the main crop matures. Or, a catch crop can be planted between the spring harvest and fall planting of some crops. Catch cropping is a type of succession planting. It makes more efficient use of growing space. Catch crops are also crops that are sown to prevent minerals being flushed away from the soil: crops such as