Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DiverIMPACTS (Diversification through Rotation, Intercropping, Multiple cropping, Promoted with Actors and value-Chains Towards Sustainability)

Teaser

European arable agricultural systems are often characterised by short rotations, or even monocultures, leading to problems such as higher pest pressure, soil erosion, loss of soil fertility and of biodiversity. Temporal and spatial diversification of crops (through rotation...

Summary

European arable agricultural systems are often characterised by short rotations, or even monocultures, leading to problems such as higher pest pressure, soil erosion, loss of soil fertility and of biodiversity. Temporal and spatial diversification of crops (through rotation, intercropping and multiple cropping) is a key driver for resource-efficient farming systems that could contribute to increasing the productivity and profitability of agricultural systems, to reducing input use and negative environmental impacts and to providing better products to the society. However, despite its potential benefits, crop diversification is currently hindered by various technical, organisational and institutional barriers along the value-chain. Therefore, crop diversification systems will only emerge if clear benefits to farmers and society are demonstrated, if the upstream and downstream value chains are fully engaged, and if the sociotechnical regime is more disposed to support crop diversification.
DiverIMPACTS has the following scientific and technological objectives:
To demonstrate clear benefits of crop diversification through a set of field experiments carried out in key biogeographical regions across Europe and through multi-actor case studies;
To co-design technical and organisational innovations, to stimulate crop diversification and co-learning, and adapt existing multi-criteria assessment methods to the needs of actors;
To remove barriers and promote enablers to crop diversification at the farm, value-chain and local levels;
To develop comprehensive and long-term strategies for the agricultural system at large (farming system, agro-industry, value-chain, research and development, education, advisory systems as well as policy and regulation) to sustain crop diversification.

Work performed

1/ Characterise and quantify the technical, environmental and economic performances of crop diversification strategies:
- 99 meta-analyses on crop diversification were (i) selected to populate a database that will be updated over time and (ii) assessed as for their quality;
- A generic R shiny application was developed to analyse the meta-analyses;
- A network of 10 field experiments was set up and adapted to the objectives of the project;
2/ Demonstrate, through a range of multi-actor case studies, the potential of diversification of cropping systems to achieve improved productivity, delivery of ecosystem services and resource-efficient and sustainable value chains.
- 25 case studies engaged in a co-innovation approach, clarified their vision and objectives, and started implementing their action plan;
3/ Create a crop diversification knowledge network of relevant actors, to share experiences of crop diversification in order to identify key enablers to crop diversification and increase awareness and knowledge/data exchanges among actors;
- A survey collated 128 crop diversification experiences in 15 countries, beyond those included in DiverIMPACTS and helped consolidate the barriers and enablers identified across case studies;
- A stakeholder platform of 12 experts, covering the various components of sociotechnical systems was established and started discussing major challenges;
- A forum was opened, which makes it possible for stakeholders to interact with the project;
- A cluster on Crop Diversification was initiated with other H2020 projects related to crop diversification: ReMIX, DIVERSify, Leg-Value, TRUE, Diverfarming;;
4/ Adapt and expand existing multi-criteria assessment methods to the needs of actors to assess the technical, economic, ecological and social impacts of crop diversification at the farm, value chain and territory levels.
- A minimum set of 21 sustainability criteria and 29 indicators was defined in relation with case studies and field experiments and is being implemented;
- The analysis of carry-over effects of crop diversification on farm economic performances was initiated.
- Deepen the analysis of main lock-in effects to the adoption of crop diversification and identify technical innovations, organisation schemes and governance instruments that help remove barriers and promote enablers to crop diversification.
- Barriers to crop diversification all along the value chain were identified and discussed within and across case studies as well as with the other WPs;
- Case studiess were selected for in-depth analysis of their barriers and co-design of solutions to overcome them at farm, logistics and value chain levels;
5/ Stimulate at farm, value chain and territory levels innovation processes simultaneously for all actors of the sociotechnical system (farming, advisory, education, value chain, policy);
- Case studies qre addresssing all barriers (lack of technologies at farm level, including machinery, supply chain organisation, market opportunities, advisory systems, etc.) that may hinder diversification in their specific case studies;
- A survey on existing tools that could help support diversification was conducted: 50 methods and tools were retrieved and will be shared within the cluster on crop diversification;
6/ Disseminate outputs through existing channels, targeting farmers, value chain actors and society and build up recommendations and roadmap for policy-makers.
- A website was set up as well as social media channels;
- Three newsletters were released;
- First practice abstracts were prepared (one published on EIP-AGRI site);
- A review of current policy instruments and their role on crop diversification was conducted.

Final results

The following achievements are expected:
1/ At the knowledge level:
- Identify success and failure factors associated with a wide range of crop diversification experiences through a dynamic database;
- Establish a framework for policy analysis and recommendations for tailored policy instruments to support crop diversified systems adoption;
- Quantify the direct and indirect impacts of crop diversification all along the value chain – from farm to fork – under a wide range of situations.
2/ At the technological level:
- A multi-criteria assessment tool designed to assess benefits and drawbacks brought by crop diversification in terms of technical and economic performances as well as social and environmental services;
- Specifications of machinery equipment that could help foster crop diversification;
- Logistic and contractual schemes as well as economic instruments to overcome current barriers;
- Novel business models resulting from crop diversification, short supply chains and varied ecosystem services;
- Innovative collaboration paths between rural actors such as farmers, logistic providers, processors, retailers and consumers;
- An open-access database gathering the characteristics and the performances of crop diversification strategies from field experiments and case studies.
3/ At the practical level:
- Implement a diversified network of key actors and experts in agrifood sociotechnical systems to serve as a basis for wider adoption of crop diversification beyond the project lifetime;
- Develop a learning-for-innovation methodological platform adapted to crop diversification;
- Design and propose a new training and education strategy to enhance crop diversification;
- Set up a long-term network of standardised field experiments covering the diversity of biogeographical regions;
- Develop a practical decision tree to help actors assess benefits of crop diversification under their specific contexts.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.diverimpacts.net/.