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Enabling crop diversification to support transitions towards more sustainable European agrifood systems

Messean, Antoine; Viguier, Loic; Paresys, Lise; Aubertot, Jean-Noël; Canali, Stefano; Iannetta, Pietro; Justes, Eric; Karley, Alison; Keillor, Beatrix; Kemper, Laura; Muel, Frédéric; Pancino, Barbara; Stilmant, Didier; Watson, Christine; Willer, Helga and Zornoza, Raul (2021) Enabling crop diversification to support transitions towards more sustainable European agrifood systems. Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering, 8 (3), pp. 474-480.

[thumbnail of messean-etal-2021-FrontiersAgriSciEngineering-Vol8-Issue3-p474-480.pdf] PDF - Published Version - English
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Document available online at: https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/10.15302/J-FASE-2021406


Summary

• Crop diversification is a dynamic pathway towards sustainable agrifood systems.
• Technological and institutional barriers restrict uptake of crop diversification.
• More coordination and cooperation among agrifood system stakeholders is required.
• The European Crop Diversification Cluster calls for multiactor networks.
European cropping systems are often characterized by short rotations or even monocropping, leading to environmental issues such as soil degradation, water eutrophication, and air pollution including greenhouse gas emissions, that contribute to climate change and biodiversity loss. The use of diversification practices (i.e., intercropping, multiple cropping including cover cropping and rotation extension), may help enhance agrobiodiversity and deliver ecosystem services while developing new value chains. Despite its benefits, crop diversification is hindered by various technical, organizational, and institutional barriers along value chains (input industries, farms, trading and processing industries, retailers, and consumers) and within sociotechnical systems (policy, research, education, regulation and advisory). Six EU-funded research projects have joined forces to boost crop diversification by creating the European Crop Diversification Cluster (CDC). This Cluster aggregates research, innovation, commercial and citizen-focused partnerships to identify and remove barriers across the agrifood system and thus enables the uptake of diversification measures by all European value-chain stakeholders. The CDC will produce a typology of barriers, develop tools to accompany actors in their transition, harmonize the use of multicriteria assessment indicators, prepare policy recommendations and pave the way for a long-term network on crop diversification.


EPrint Type:Journal paper
Keywords:crop rotation, intercropping, diversification, food system, DiverImpacts, DIVERSify, ReMIX, LegValue, TRUE, Diverfarming, Abacus, FiBL1010407
Agrovoc keywords:
Language
Value
URI
English
crop rotation
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6662
English
intercropping
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3910
Subjects: Crop husbandry
Environmental aspects > Biodiversity and ecosystem services
Research affiliation: Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Crops > Anbautechnik > Mixed cropping
Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Sustainability > Biodiversity
European Union > Horizon 2020 > Diverfarming
European Union > Horizon 2020 > Diverimpacts
European Union > Horizon 2020 > Legvalue
European Union > Horizon 2020 > Remix
European Union > Horizon 2020 > TRUE
ISSN:2095-7505, 2095-977X(Online)
DOI:10.15302/J-FASE-2021406
Related Links:https://www.diverimpacts.net/, https://www.remix-intercrops.eu/
Deposited By: Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau, FiBL
ID Code:43173
Deposited On:05 Jan 2022 15:00
Last Modified:15 Sep 2022 07:58
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted

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