Intercropping can support ecological intensification in organic agriculture

Summary

Intercropping combines the temporal and spatial dimensions of crop diversification and offers a variety of ways to shape agroecosystem ecology and productivity. It has been most used with forage legumes for biological nitrogen fixation, but it might deliver also other, less known benefits such as buffering from weeds, pests and abiotic stresses, support for beneficial biota and greater yielding per acreage. Productivity gains are imperative for developing organic agriculture. We found that legumes added as intercrops had a positive impact on both a cereal and an oilseed co-crop yield under low fertilization, indicating that intercropping can support ecological intensification. Both additive and substitutive intercropping designs resulted in overyielding. Intercropping works well in line with the key principles of organic farming: utilizing and sustaining beneficial ecological interactions and biodiversity. It may support climate change adaptation as well (Himanen et al. 2016). In addition, it should be experimented more as a method to reduce reliance on external inputs and develop more sustainable conventional agriculture. Technological development and improved understanding on the mechanisms potentiating overyielding can help designing optimal intercropping using differential row, strip or mixed intercropping set-ups.