Enabling Crop Diversification to Support Transitions Toward More Sustainable European Agrifood Systems

Messéan, Antoine; Viguier, Loïc; Paresys, Lise; Aubertot, Jean‐Noël; Canali, Stefano; Iannetta, Pietro; Justes, Éric; Karley, Alison J.; Keillor, Beatrix; Kemper, Laura; Muel, Fréderic; Pancino, Barbara; Stilmant, Didier; Watson, C. A.; Willer, Helga; Zornoza, Raúl

doi:10.15302/j-fase-2021406

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The UAA is mainly based on arable land (61.4%), permanent grassland (31.2%), and permanent crops (7.4%). In recent decades, European agriculture has specialised on the production of few crop species named majors crops, with the aim to increase the economic efficiency of agri-food systems (Messéan et al, 2021). In the last 10-year, cereal production in Europe covered about 85% of the total production (Eurostat, 2020; https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ tag00025/default/table?lang=en).…”

Section: Agricultural Context and Case Study Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is based on specialised agri-food production in either crop or livestock systems, associated with low genetic and landscape diversity (Hufnagel et al, 2020). Agricultural intensification is characterised by high use of external inputs, especially energy and agrochemicals that negatively affects the environment (Messéan et al, 2021) through soil degradation, progressive depletion of soil organic matter (SOM), decline of soil quality and agrobiodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions (Kirschenmann, 2010;Bommarco et al, 2013;Wezel et al, 2018), and nutrient losses from agricultural soils that cause water pollution and eutrophication (Garnett et al, 2013;Hunter et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Farming Practices and Crop Diversification Strategies in Mediterranean Cereal-Based Systems

Bene¹,

Gómez-López

Francaviglia³

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Agricultural intensification negatively affects the environment through soil degradation, loss of agrobiodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and nutrient leaching. Thus, the introduction of crop diversification strategies and alternative management practices is crucial to re-design agricultural intensification systems. To better understand the contribution of crop diversification to more sustainable agricultural systems, an accurate evaluation of synergies and trade-offs is needed. In this context, the 5-year Horizon 2020 DIVERFARMING project aims to define sustainable, diversified cropping systems with low-input farming practices, adopting a multi-disciplinary approach. The overall objective of this study was to improve the understanding of the stakeholders’ perceptions of barriers and opportunities for implementing farming practices and crop diversification strategies in intensive rainfed and irrigated cereal-based cropping systems in Italy. Fifty stakeholders, grouped in farmers and technical agricultural advisors, field technical officers from public agricultural administrations, technical experts from NGOs with experience on farming practices, and researchers in agriculture, were engaged by public consultations to capture their practical knowledge of current farming practices for promoting suitable diversified cropping system, as alternative to agricultural intensification systems. The analysis of the stakeholders’ perceptions of barriers and opportunities to the transition of cropping systems towards diversification was done using a multi-criteria decision analysis The most important agro-environmental problem identified by the stakeholders in both the cropping systems was the loss of profitability, associated with the risk of farm abandonment, while minimum tillage, maintenance of vegetation covers, application of organic matter/manure and use of green manure, integrated pest management, and change of rotations were identified as the most adequate and effective practices to be adopted in the case study areas. Crop rotation and legumes were the most adequate diversification strategies selected for the intensive rainfed cereal-based cropping systems, while crop rotations with processing tomato and multiple cropping with short cycle maize and wheat were selected as the most appropriate alternatives for irrigated cereal-based production. Our findings highlight relevant strengths and drawbacks for the implementation of diversified cropping systems under low-input agricultural practices. An important strength is that the crop alternatives selected for the diversification are already cultivated as monocultures and are adapted to the local pedoclimatic conditions, while a major weakness is that few farmers are experts in crop diversification. These results can provide insights to support the planning of agricultural policies at different levels.

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Section: Agricultural Context and Case Study Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Farming Practices and Crop Diversification Strategies in Mediterranean Cereal-Based Systems

Bene¹,

Gómez-López

Francaviglia³

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…When appropriately implemented, they can lead to higher productivity (Ponisio et al 2015;Zhao et al 2022) and increased profitability in the long-term (Cavigelli et al 2009;Dayananda et al 2021). However, diversification practices are rarely implemented in conventional agriculture, partly because of lack of empirical evidence on their potential positive effects (Ponisio and Ehrlich 2016;Roesch-McNally et al 2018) but also lack of technical knowledge among farmers and advisors, adapted machinery and locally available varieties of minor crops (Messean et al 2021). Large-scale adoption of legume cultivation by farmers is hampered by many lock-ins, such as lack of knowledge on the impact of legumes on the sustainability of farming systems (Meynard et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The reflection of principles and values in worldwide organic agricultural research viewed through a crop diversification lens. A bibliometric review

Chopin

Menegat

Bergkvist

et al. 2023

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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Organic agriculture and organic food have expanded in recent decades but have undergone conventionalisation. Some claim that this contradicts some or all of the principles of ‘health’, ‘ecology’, ‘fairness’ and ‘care’ established by the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movement (IFOAM). It is currently unclear how research on organic food/agriculture is structured, whether it embraces these principles, or how key crop diversification, driving sustainability, are addressed. To fill these knowledge gaps, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of 10,030 peer-reviewed articles published from 1945 to 2021 with topic and textual analysis. Our main findings were the following: (1) research is compartmentalised into scales and disciplines, with at field-scale ‘weed’, ‘soil’, ‘pest and disease’ management and ‘livestock farming’ seldom addressed together, or with environmental assessment separated from socioeconomic studies at farm scale. (2) The proportion of publications on ‘consumers’ preferences’ and ‘product quality’ research almost tripled in 20 years, from 10 to 27%, emphasizing the consumer orientation of research on organic agriculture and organic food. (3) Only 4% of articles covered all four IFOAM principles, while associated values such as ‘resilience’, ‘integrity’, ‘equity’, ‘transparency’ and ‘justice’ were even less frequently addressed. (4) Fewer diversification practices have been tested in organic than in conventional agriculture research, with fewer articles on ‘crop mixtures’ or ‘bee-friendly crops’ and a smaller range of legumes considered. (5) Research on genetic improvement and processing of organic legumes is lacking, which could constrain adoption of legumes in organic farming even more than in conventional agriculture. These results indicate a need for increasing interdisciplinary efforts at field level, with systematic measurement of multiple processes (weed-nutrient-pest dynamics). Future studies on organic agriculture should combine several diversification practices and legumes, with relevant indicators addressing the IFOAM values explicitly, and consider the whole value chain by linking producers with consumers.

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“…This thesis centers crop diversification as a potential lever for reducing the negative ecological impacts and increasing the multifunctionality of industrialized crop production in the European and specifically Dutch context. Crop diversification refers to the introduction of agrobiodiversity and heterogeneity into monocultural crop production systems through practices which may include various forms of intercropping, rotation extension, multiple cropping, or any combination of these (Messean et al 2021). In the time since I began the research, multiple comprehensive meta-analyses have been published which illuminate both the abundance of crop diversity research being done worldwide and the potential of crop diversification to address the demands placed on European farmers (Beillouin et al 2021;Botzas-Coluni et al 2021;Gu et al 2021;Tamburini et al 2020).…”

Section: Diversified Industrial Cropping Systems?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The research presented in this thesis is part of a larger effort at moving beyond the industrial monoculture and unlocking a wider range of solutions (IPES-Food 2016; Messean et al 2021). It is embedded within two of the EU Horizon 2020 crop diversification cluster projects, DiverIMPACTS and LegValue.…”

Section: Diversified Industrial Cropping Systems?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards diversified industrial cropping systems?

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Enabling Crop Diversification to Support Transitions Toward More Sustainable European Agrifood Systems

Cited by 13 publications

References 16 publications

Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Farming Practices and Crop Diversification Strategies in Mediterranean Cereal-Based Systems

Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Farming Practices and Crop Diversification Strategies in Mediterranean Cereal-Based Systems

The reflection of principles and values in worldwide organic agricultural research viewed through a crop diversification lens. A bibliometric review

Towards diversified industrial cropping systems?

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