Work is underway in the five-year DiverIMPACTS project (Diversification through Rotation, Intercropping, Multiple Cropping, Promoted with Actors and value-Chains towards Sustainability), which is exploring the full potential of diversifying cropping systems with the aim of improving agricultural productivity, resource efficiency and sustainable value chains.
Funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, DiverIMPACTS brings together 34 partners from 11 countries, including farmers and farmer organisations, advisory services, cooperatives, logistics providers, scientists, industry professionals and representatives of civil society and rural areas.
The project is also seeking to support the removal of barriers to crop diversification and it will help to promote the uptake of crop diversification at farm, supply chain and territory levels. In addition, it will be drawing up recommendations for policy makers to facilitate the coordination of all relevant actors within the value chain.
The project is building on the experience of 10 existing field experiments, which will be used to quantify the impacts of crop diversification, and will “support 25 innovation groups in their dynamic processes to develop sustainable value chains characterised by a high level of crop diversification and new market products. The innovation groups include a wide range of actors such as farmers, advisors, processors and scientists.”
Details of these 25 multi-actor case studies are now online. They have been divided into five innovation ‘clusters’, each with a particular theme:
Cluster 1 on service crops, for example, includes a project which is seeking to break maize monoculture in The Netherlands, where a group of farmers have reported a 25% yield gap in maize monoculture due to the degradation of soil quality, potential pest pressure and/or emergence of pests and possible legal limitations on organic manure and fertilisation rates. Potential solutions to improve soil quality include the use of service crops: cover crops such as Italian ryegrass sown under maize, for example, or fodder crops such as a mixture of winter rye and winter pea, sown after the maize crop and harvested in May the following year.
Cluster 2 on crop diversification under adverse conditions includes a Swiss case study seeking to halt a stagnation in organic oilseed rape (OSR) production, a crop with a high risk of severe yield losses due to large populations of pollen beetles (pictured right), strong weed pressure and limited nitrogen supply. The main objective of this project is to “increase yield stability in order to promote rapeseed as a valuable crop in the rotation”. Possible solutions for controlling beetles and other pests include the use of stone meal or oil odours such as mint. The group also wants to test catch crops which offer greater and faster cover, competing with weeds and drawing pests away from OSR flowers.
Cluster 3 on crop diversification in systems from Western Europe, includes a project involving the co-design of diversified systems in France’s Pays de Loire. This will draw on earlier work which has sought to improve the economic robustness of local farms, with crop diversification seen as a key component. The project reports, “Crop diversification will first be improved by taking advantage of existing value chains (such as pulse crops, hemp, alfalfa, and others) and also by developing new local value chains.” Particular attention will be paid to “foster the natural regulation of pests, diseases, and weeds and limit damages in a low-pesticides strategy, increase soil fertility, and limit the use of mineral fertilisers”.
Cluster 4 on diversification through intercropping, with a special focus on grain legumes, includes a Swedish project working on the co-design with organic farmers of intercropping systems for food or feed. Pointing to research showing the agronomic and environmental benefits in grain legume/cereal intercrops, the objective is “to engage farmers and other stakeholders in a participatory process to reveal drivers and barriers for intercropping of grain legumes and cereals in organic farming”.
Cluster 5 on the diversification of vegetable cropping systems includes a UK project looking into crop diversification in protected vegetable systems. The coordinators note that growers have already moved away from mono-cropping in protected systems and now want to explore more options to increase profitability and sustainability. “The case study should contribute to collect more data and to display possibilities in increasing diversity to improve yields,” they add. “The main objective is thus to upscale diversity for increasing the spectrum of cash crops based on two small scale organic vegetable growers.”
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