Modern agriculture is under increasing pressure from climate change, biodiversity loss, and declining natural resources. To ensure food security while meeting Net Zero and environmental goals, farming systems must evolve toward sustainable, low-input practices that do not compromise productivity.
One promising solution is intercropping—growing multiple crops together—which has been shown to improve yield stability, reduce agrochemical reliance, and enhance biodiversity. In particular, legume-cereal intercropping addresses challenges such as weed control and yield variability in monocrops. Despite these advantages, intercropping remains underutilized in modern farming.
This pilot study supports the expansion of Pick-a-Mix, an open-access database of intercropping trials. By adding new data on ecosystem services and farm performance, we aim to provide farmers and agronomists with practical insights into the costs, benefits, and environmental impacts of legume-based intercropping.
Key Objectives:
- Expand the Pick-a-Mix database with new agronomic and ecosystem service data from UK farm trials.
- Enhance knowledge sharing by making summarized results accessible to farmers and agronomists.
- Assess the impact of crop diversity on soil ecosystem services such as nutrient and water availability.
- Evaluate intercropping best practices to improve technical efficiency and sustainability in modern farming.
By providing data-driven insights, this project aims to boost the adoption of intercropping, helping farmers optimize their systems for resilient, high-performance agriculture.esilience, and reduced agrochemical dependence.lenge perceptions and promote its use as a valuable agroecological resource rather than a nuisance.