Agriculture, polyculture farming

A feature I as a science teacher would love to see in Minecraft agriculture is things related to sustainable farming practices. Mechanics encouraging Polyculture farming and discouraging monoculture farming would increase awareness of these issues, and would make farming more interesting.
Right now mono culture farming dominates farm designs, which IRL both increases the incidence of agricultural diseases that can wipe out a crop (see the Irish potato famine), and increases soil depletion, increasing reliance on artificial fertilizers.
For educational purposes (and also fun), I would like to see similar mechanics introduced in Minecraft. An example would be making the rate of poison potatoes increase with the number of adjacent potatoes, with similar mechanics for other crops. Similarly, introducing a soil depletion and nitrification mechanics would encourage the use of real world sustainable agriculture techniques like polyculture (planting multiple different crops together, e.x. the Indigenous American three sisters of squash, maize, and beans) and crop rotation.
As a teacher I think it would be a good learning tool, and as a player I think it would be a fun addition that would make farming more enjoyable (a sentiment I have heard agreement on from my students when asked).