Strip cropping system for sustainable food and energy production

Summary

Strip cropping is a strategy for subdividing single fields into strips with different crops in order to gain the same positive effects known from crop rotations. No additional yield was found by using traditional market pricing,
however.
When including negative and/or positive yield effects in the interfaces between strips more or less the same biomass was produced when dividing the field into strips (6x6m) as compared to growing the same area with 50% annual crop + 50% perennial crop. Especially, the interspecific competitive ability of grass-clover during the initial growth stages reduces the final annual yields signi¬ficantly. So, why bother changing the well-known sole cropping practices? It is believed that the success of this strip cropping system requires inclusion of additional ecosystems functions and service not necessarily pictured using traditional agronomic market pricing based upon weight of pro¬duce. Ecosystem functions like leguminous N2-fixation and the capacity of e.g. perennial grass-clover to act as carbon sinks should gain more attention when addressing climate change mitigation tools within the framework of OA principles and values. Furthermore, the value of subdividing fields into strips to avoid the build up of pathogens and pests, depletion of soil nutrients and to improve soil struc¬ture and fertility by e.g. alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants needs further research.