A range of resources is now available from the ReMIX website. The latest addition to the project’s website is a serious game called Interplay, which is designed to help players explore the ecosystem services provided by cereal-legume intercropping options.
The four-year ReMIX project was launched in 2017 with the objective of examining ‘Species mixtures for redesigning European cropping systems’ and the game is the result of a partnership between two of the project’s French partners, INRAE and ITAB, the latter being the country’s technical institute for organic agriculture.
Interplay contains a game board, cards, counters and datasheets to support players’ reflections on the ecosystem services provided by intercrops. Once an intercropping scenario is designed, its performance is assessed by using evaluation module.
The creators report: “Cereal-legume intercropping is not much developed on commercial farms and practitioners implement very few intercropping options e.g. wheat-pea sown and harvested simultaneously with a balanced sowing density for the cereal and the legume. Yet, the range of options offered by cereal-legume intercropping is much larger than that.
“It though remains hard to explore due to the difficulty of answering all the questions raised by the practice of intercropping: Which species to combine? When and how to sow? How to manage pests and diseases, weed control operations, and phytosanitary treatments? Etc.”
Interplay is designed to support reflections on a large range of cereal-legume intercropping options and relies on cooperation and knowledge sharing between players. It is designed for small groups (one or two facilitators and up to six players), who could be agricultural students, farmers or agricultural advisers.
In addition, ReMIX has added a further 17 practice abstracts on intercropping to its website, bringing the total number to 29. These abstracts vary from the general (services expected by farmers from intercropping, principles of design for intercropping etc.) through to intercropping for specific purposes (increasing crop yield stability, controlling weed pressure, suppressing airborne pathogens etc.) and very specific situations (lentil production in Germany, wheat-lentil intercropping in France etc.).
Also available on the ReMIX website are the presentations from the project’s final conference held earlier this year on the theme of ‘Intercropping to boost agroecology in European agriculture’. The morning session of the conference was devoted to presenting and discussing five policy briefs that ReMIX partners were in the process of developing.
These policy briefs have now been completed and are available from the ReMIX website:
For more information:
Last update: 24/05/2023 - ENDURE © 2009 - Contact ENDURE - Disclaimer