Enabling crop diversification to support transitions towards more sustainable European agrifood systems.

Antoine Messean*, Loic Viguier, Lise Paresys, Jean-Noel Aubertot, Stefano Canali, Pietro PM Iannetta, Eric Justes, Alison Karley, Beatrix Keillor, Laura Kemper, Frederic Muel, Barbara Pancino, Didier Stilmant, CA Watson, Helga Willer, Raul Zornoza

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalLetterpeer-review

    21 Citations (Scopus)
    181 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    European cropping systems are often characterized by short rotations or even
    monocropping, leading to environmental issues such as soil degradation, water
    eutrophication, and air pollution including greenhouse gas emissions, that
    contribute to climate change and biodiversity loss. The use of diversification
    practices (i.e., intercropping, multiple cropping including cover cropping and
    rotation extension), may help enhance agrobiodiversity and deliver ecosystem services while developing new value chains. Despite its benefits, crop
    diversification is hindered by various technical, organizational, and institutional
    barriers along value chains (input industries, farms, trading and processing
    industries, retailers, and consumers) and within sociotechnical systems (policy,
    research, education, regulation and advisory). Six EU-funded research projects
    have joined forces to boost crop diversification by creating the European Crop
    Diversification Cluster (CDC). This Cluster aggregates research, innovation,
    commercial and citizen-focused partnerships to identify and remove barriers
    across the agrifood system and thus enables the uptake of diversification
    measures by all European value-chain stakeholders. The CDC will produce a
    typology of barriers, develop tools to accompany actors in their transition,
    harmonize the use of multicriteria assessment indicators, prepare policy
    recommendations and pave the way for a long-term network on crop
    diversification.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)474-480
    Number of pages7
    JournalFrontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering
    Volume8
    Issue number3
    Early online date13 Jul 2021
    DOIs
    Publication statusFirst published - 13 Jul 2021

    Keywords

    • crop rotation, lock-in, intercropping, multiple cropping, networking
    • Lock-in
    • Networking
    • Crop rotation
    • Intercropping
    • Multiple cropping

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