Periodic Reporting for period 4 - DiverIMPACTS (Diversification through Rotation, Intercropping, Multiple cropping, Promoted with Actors and value-Chains Towards Sustainability)
Reporting period: 2021-06-01 to 2022-05-31
European 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 biodiversity and contribution to climate change. Temporal and spatial diversification of crops (rotation, intercropping and multiple cropping) is a key driver for resource-efficient farming systems and contributes to:
• increasing the productivity and profitability,
• reducing input use and negative environmental impacts,
• mitigating climate change,
• providing healthier products to society.
However, despite its benefits, crop diversification is currently hindered by various technical, organisational and institutional barriers along the value chain. Crop diversification will only emerge if clear benefits to farmers and society are demonstrated, if the upstream and downstream value chains are fully engaged, and if the societal norms, structures and institutions are more disposed to support crop diversification.
DiverIMPACTS objectives are:
• To demonstrate benefits of crop diversification through field experiments and multi-actor case studies, carried out in key European regions;
• To co-design technical and organisational innovations to stimulate crop diversification as well as adapt multi-criteria assessment methods to the needs of actors;
• To remove barriers and promote enablers to crop diversification at farm, value-chain and territory levels;
• To develop comprehensive and long-term strategies for the agrifood system (farming system, agro-industry, value-chain, research, education, advisory systems, policy and regulation) to sustain crop diversification.
• increasing the productivity and profitability,
• reducing input use and negative environmental impacts,
• mitigating climate change,
• providing healthier products to society.
However, despite its benefits, crop diversification is currently hindered by various technical, organisational and institutional barriers along the value chain. Crop diversification will only emerge if clear benefits to farmers and society are demonstrated, if the upstream and downstream value chains are fully engaged, and if the societal norms, structures and institutions are more disposed to support crop diversification.
DiverIMPACTS objectives are:
• To demonstrate benefits of crop diversification through field experiments and multi-actor case studies, carried out in key European regions;
• To co-design technical and organisational innovations to stimulate crop diversification as well as adapt multi-criteria assessment methods to the needs of actors;
• To remove barriers and promote enablers to crop diversification at farm, value-chain and territory levels;
• To develop comprehensive and long-term strategies for the agrifood system (farming system, agro-industry, value-chain, research, education, advisory systems, policy and regulation) to sustain crop diversification.
Our results showed that regardless of the starting point and the type of agricultural system (conventional or organic), it is possible to design innovative crop sequences that combine higher energy yields and gross margins with reduced inputs and environmental impacts.
46 barriers to crop diversification have been identified from farm to fork across the 25 case studies. A catalogue of solutions that may overcome them has been developed; among many others, adapted machinery, based on ecological principles, can support the success of diversification. Most important, our results demonstrate that one needs to go beyond a sole technological focus and highlights the role of network anchoring and institutional changes.
Capturing the direct and indirect effects of crop diversification across space and over time is necessary to help actors drive their own crop diversification pathway. To this end, several multicriteria assessment tools or methods were developed at the field, farm and territory levels.
Overall, diversification is knowledge-intensive and requires to master theoretical and technical knowledge about new crops and their combinations and to adapt facilities on the farm and access market outlets for new crops (storage, market, labour, etc.).
DiverIMPACTS partners have made efforts to disseminate their findings to both academic and nonacademic audience:
• Collaboration within the European cluster on Crop Diversification (https://www.cropdiversification.eu/)(opens in new window);
• 54 practice abstracts to disseminate practical solutions available online;
• 21 online seminars and 29 videos to stimulate learnings on key topics such as agronomic knowledge, learning process in diversification, set-up of value-chains or the use of multi-criteria assessment tools;
• The whole project final conference video in Brussels, providing exhaustive overview of project findings and practical recommendations;
• 5 policy briefs to deliver key recommendations for overcoming barriers to crop diversification at farm and value chain levels, producing Actionable Knowledge, teaching, training and learning.
46 barriers to crop diversification have been identified from farm to fork across the 25 case studies. A catalogue of solutions that may overcome them has been developed; among many others, adapted machinery, based on ecological principles, can support the success of diversification. Most important, our results demonstrate that one needs to go beyond a sole technological focus and highlights the role of network anchoring and institutional changes.
Capturing the direct and indirect effects of crop diversification across space and over time is necessary to help actors drive their own crop diversification pathway. To this end, several multicriteria assessment tools or methods were developed at the field, farm and territory levels.
Overall, diversification is knowledge-intensive and requires to master theoretical and technical knowledge about new crops and their combinations and to adapt facilities on the farm and access market outlets for new crops (storage, market, labour, etc.).
DiverIMPACTS partners have made efforts to disseminate their findings to both academic and nonacademic audience:
• Collaboration within the European cluster on Crop Diversification (https://www.cropdiversification.eu/)(opens in new window);
• 54 practice abstracts to disseminate practical solutions available online;
• 21 online seminars and 29 videos to stimulate learnings on key topics such as agronomic knowledge, learning process in diversification, set-up of value-chains or the use of multi-criteria assessment tools;
• The whole project final conference video in Brussels, providing exhaustive overview of project findings and practical recommendations;
• 5 policy briefs to deliver key recommendations for overcoming barriers to crop diversification at farm and value chain levels, producing Actionable Knowledge, teaching, training and learning.
DiverIMPACTS provided new insights on crop diversification barriers and enablers and making it possible to identify key “ingredients” to a successful implementation at farm level, avoid trade-offs between performances and help reach Green Deal objectives:
o Maintain a significant part of dominant species in the diversified system, with an ad hoc adaptation of their crop management, to maintain sequence productivity;
o Add minor crops, such as legumes to increase global ecosystem services provision;
o Use “compensatory strategies”, i.e. intercropping and multiple cropping, to increase and secure yields while further increasing ecosystem services delivery;
o Combine these levers a judicious combination of practices which is required to maintain high ecosystem service provision and to face different risks;
o As no crop sequence would reach all expected services anywhere and anytime, use an adaptive management to continuously cope with to changing and evolving pedo-climatic and socio-economic factors.
To implement these ingredients in practice, multicriteria assessment tools have been developed at field, farm and territory levels to help actors drive their own pathway to sustainable agrifood systems. Also, crop diversification requires adjusting existing value chains, or developing new ones as well as fostering collaborative approaches between all actors of the value chains to coordinate and align their strategies. In this context, all resources, solutions, tools and open-access databases have been made available to all actors as well as to upcoming projects to further develop them.
Beyond the farm and value chain levels, successful crop diversification also implies changes in the wider sociotechnical system (policy, regulation, education and research). DiverIMPACTS has produced insights and recommendations to make the sociotechnical landscape more prone to crop diversification: (i) a training and education strategy for farmers, advisors and teachers to enhance crop diversification which is being implemented in schools and universities of agriculture in Europe and (ii) practical solutions to produce actionable knowledge through co-innovation processes and enhanced networking anchoring as well as to make multiactor research projects more efficient.
At the policy level, recommendations have also been made:
o Expand the scope of CAP and enrich CAP instruments to support both farmers and other value chain actors to align and coordinate their diversification strategies, including risk insurances mechanisms and payment for ecosystem services;
o Further enrich the upcoming EU farm sustainability data network by including crop management practices at the field level, so as to help actors select their best practices, monitor the sustainability of crop diversification and coherently drive the transition;
o Adapt research funding instruments to sustain systems approaches over time, ensure better capitalization of research results across projects while increasing flexibility in Research Innovation Action projects to help foster farmer-led approaches that are crucial to develop tailor-made solutions;
o Reallocate public and private R&D resources towards minor and diversification crops, including breeding and farming practices on these specific crops, which are currently lacking, to increase their relative competitiveness compared to major crops and facilitate the uptake of their benefits.
DiverIMPACTS established provisions for the project legacy and maintenance of case studies and field experiments so as to sustain efforts among key actors in agri-food systems as a basis for wider adoption of crop diversification beyond the project lifetime.
o Maintain a significant part of dominant species in the diversified system, with an ad hoc adaptation of their crop management, to maintain sequence productivity;
o Add minor crops, such as legumes to increase global ecosystem services provision;
o Use “compensatory strategies”, i.e. intercropping and multiple cropping, to increase and secure yields while further increasing ecosystem services delivery;
o Combine these levers a judicious combination of practices which is required to maintain high ecosystem service provision and to face different risks;
o As no crop sequence would reach all expected services anywhere and anytime, use an adaptive management to continuously cope with to changing and evolving pedo-climatic and socio-economic factors.
To implement these ingredients in practice, multicriteria assessment tools have been developed at field, farm and territory levels to help actors drive their own pathway to sustainable agrifood systems. Also, crop diversification requires adjusting existing value chains, or developing new ones as well as fostering collaborative approaches between all actors of the value chains to coordinate and align their strategies. In this context, all resources, solutions, tools and open-access databases have been made available to all actors as well as to upcoming projects to further develop them.
Beyond the farm and value chain levels, successful crop diversification also implies changes in the wider sociotechnical system (policy, regulation, education and research). DiverIMPACTS has produced insights and recommendations to make the sociotechnical landscape more prone to crop diversification: (i) a training and education strategy for farmers, advisors and teachers to enhance crop diversification which is being implemented in schools and universities of agriculture in Europe and (ii) practical solutions to produce actionable knowledge through co-innovation processes and enhanced networking anchoring as well as to make multiactor research projects more efficient.
At the policy level, recommendations have also been made:
o Expand the scope of CAP and enrich CAP instruments to support both farmers and other value chain actors to align and coordinate their diversification strategies, including risk insurances mechanisms and payment for ecosystem services;
o Further enrich the upcoming EU farm sustainability data network by including crop management practices at the field level, so as to help actors select their best practices, monitor the sustainability of crop diversification and coherently drive the transition;
o Adapt research funding instruments to sustain systems approaches over time, ensure better capitalization of research results across projects while increasing flexibility in Research Innovation Action projects to help foster farmer-led approaches that are crucial to develop tailor-made solutions;
o Reallocate public and private R&D resources towards minor and diversification crops, including breeding and farming practices on these specific crops, which are currently lacking, to increase their relative competitiveness compared to major crops and facilitate the uptake of their benefits.
DiverIMPACTS established provisions for the project legacy and maintenance of case studies and field experiments so as to sustain efforts among key actors in agri-food systems as a basis for wider adoption of crop diversification beyond the project lifetime.