These success stories include topics such as increasing domestic protein supply with intercropping in Switzerland, crop diversification in Hungary and Wallonia, soybean cultivation in Flanders, cover crops to reduce nutrient leaching and catch crops to protect drinking water.

One example is a LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) Demonstration Farm in Northamptonshire in the United Kingdom. Here, farmer Duncan Farrington has combined rotation, cover crops and companion cropping on his 300 hectares, with a focus on creating healthy soils, alongside high environmental and conservation measures.

The farm concentrates on cereal and oilseed production, but the traditional approach of consistently following the same rotation brings with it weed problems (blackgrass is a potentially serious problem), pest damage from pigeons and diseases, and negative effects on soil nutrition.

Duncan has therefore been looking at ways to tackle these issues while ensuring environmental protection. The major change has been to broaden the rotation with the introduction of spring barley and a reduction in wheat production and, more recently, the growing of cover and catch crops. For example, a cover mix of black oats, vetch and phacelia is grown before spring barley and phosphate-fixing buckwheat before winter wheat.

He tells DiverIMPACTS that it is “trial and error. I’ve learned an awful lot and gained great experiences. I still make mistakes, but I am learning from them and will make less mistakes in the future”.

This kind of learning process has been in evidence in the introduction of soybean cultivation in Flanders, Belgium. Soybean was introduced to the farm in 2014, offering several advantages over maize (earlier harvesting, no need for drying and nitrogen fixation).

However, introducing a completely new crop inevitably brings challenges too. Early problems included weed control, not least because chemical solutions were not authorised for the crop. Subsequently, adapted sowing distances and authorised herbicides have improved the viability of soybean production.

Other surprises lay in store. For example, a cruciferous cover crop (radish) proved to be a host for bean fly larvae, which subsequently destroyed sowed soybean seeds. And harvesting required adaptation, too, as standard equipment missed the beans growing low on the plants.

The farmer in question is now enjoying yields of around 3.5 tonnes per hectare, above average for the region, and is making considerable savings on fertiliser costs. The next step is to drive up the quality of harvested soybeans so they can be sold for human feed rather than feed, thus boosting on-farm income.

For more information:

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