New ways of keeping up with the DiverIMPACTS project (Diversification through Rotation, Intercropping, Multiple Cropping, Promoted with Actors and value-Chains towards Sustainability) are now available with the publication of its first newsletter and the production of an informative flyer. 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 with the aim of exploring the full potential of diversifying cropping systems and thereby improving agricultural productivity and resource efficiency and creating sustainable value chains.
The flyer explains: “European arable agricultural systems are often characterised by short rotations or even monocultures, leading to problems such as higher pest pressure, soil erosion, loss of soil fertility, and loss of biodiversity. In this context, the overall goal of DiverIMPACTS is to promote the diversification of cropping systems, with the aim to improve productivity, help deliver ecosystem services, and support the development of resource-efficient and sustainable value chains.
“DiverIMPACTS will develop a range of technical and organisational innovations to help remove barriers all along the value chain from farmers to consumers, as well as create strategies and recommendations to strengthen crop diversification practices on the long-term.”
The newsletter takes readers through the background of the project before providing more information on its key components, such as case studies covering a broad range of European soil, climate, political and administrative conditions, and a network of 10 field experiments across Europe aiming to demonstrate the benefits of crop diversification over time and space.
DiverIMPACTS is building on a study conducted by INRA, France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research, which highlighted “the barriers to the development of minor agricultural crops in France, and demonstrated that the overall agricultural system (farming system, agro-industry, value-chain, research and development and regulation) has been organised around certain major crops, leading to a systemic lock-in and making it difficult to diversify existing cropping systems.”
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Last update: 24/05/2023 - ENDURE © 2009 - Contact ENDURE - Disclaimer