The following progress was carried out during the second period of the project:
1. WP1 supports the coordination and leading of 13 Co-Innovation Case Studies (CICS) for boosting value chains for intercropping through action plans, cross-learning workshops, and participatory tools like the Interplay® serious game. Two main achievements were: i) identified six key insights for designing intercrop-based value chains, including the importance of economic incentives, actor engagement, and knowledge dissemination; ii) developed methodologies for scaling intercropping and overcoming barriers.
2. Intercrop productivity and ecosystem services are addressed with a meta-experiment (WP2). Activities were focused on completing two years of field trials across 14 sites in Europe and Africa, focusing on the analysis of agronomic performances and G×G×E×M interactions. Two main achievements were: i) validated protocols for meta-analysis and first-year field data integration in the database, ii) preliminary results confirmed the potential of intercropping to enhance productivity and reduce environmental impacts.
3. Managing intercrops in cropping systems for good performances (WP3). Activities involved in the assessment of soil health indicators, GHG emissions (N2O), conducted on-farm (WP1) and on-experimental station (WP2), and identification of innovative machinery adapted for intercropping. Three main achievements were: i) developed a soil health scorecard prototype, ii) first results indicating contrasted effects of intercropping on N2O emissions among sites and treatments, and iii) identified three farmer strategies for machinery adaptation: frugal, standardized, and flexible designs.
4. Modelling intercrop performance using adapted numeric models is crucial for understanding plant-plan interactions and further optimize their cropping (WP4). Activities focused on calibration of models (STICS, FLORSYS, FSPM) to simulate intercrop dynamics, resource competition, and disease/weed regulation, and for linking experimental data with virtual scenarios. In addition to the calibrated model, two other achievements were: i) successfully coupled STICS-MILA for disease modelling in intercropping, and ii) improved FLORSYS for weed suppression.
5. Innovation in the intercrop food chain is essential for food processing adaptation and market access (WP5). Activities focused on analysing grain quality (macro/micronutrients, mycotoxins), effectiveness of processed intercrop-based foods (bread, biscuits, extruded snacks), and consumer acceptance. Two main achievements were: i) confirmation that intercropping maintains or improves grain quality (e.g. higher protein in cereals), ii) developed NIRS/HSI models to predict legume content in flour mixtures and authenticated cereal-legume products (e.g. in wheat-lentil).
6. Unleashing intercrop potential by identifying current barriers and market opportunities is necessary for enhancing adoption in value chains (WP6). Two main achievements were: i) cost-benefit frameworks and business models, and ii) proposed a set of solutions to address priority barriers (e.g. standardization, marketing, post-harvest handling).
