ENABLING CROP DIVERSIFICATION TO SUPPORT TRANSITIONS TOWARD MORE SUSTAINABLE EUROPEAN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS

doi:10.15302/J-FASE-2021406

Front. Agr. Sci. Eng.

2021, Vol. 8

Issue (3) : 474-480 https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021406

LETTER

ENABLING CROP DIVERSIFICATION TO SUPPORT TRANSITIONS TOWARD MORE SUSTAINABLE EUROPEAN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS

Antoine MESSÉAN¹(

), Loïc VIGUIER¹, Lise PARESYS¹, Jean-Noël AUBERTOT², Stefano CANALI³, Pietro IANNETTA⁴, Eric JUSTES⁵, Alison KARLEY⁴, Beatrix KEILLOR⁴, Laura KEMPER⁶, Frédéric MUEL⁷, Barbara PANCINO⁸, Didier STILMANT⁹, Christine WATSON¹⁰, Helga WILLER⁶, Raúl ZORNOZA¹¹

¹. French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), Eco-Innov, F-78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France.
². French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), UMR AGIR, Toulouse, France.
³. Council for Agricultural Research and Economics-Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment (CREA-AA), 00184 Rome, Italy.
⁴. The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA, UK.
⁵. French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), Persyst Department, F-34398 Montpellier, France.
⁶. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), 5070 Frick, Switzerland.
⁷. Terres Inovia, F-78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France.
⁸. University of Tuscia, Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, 01100 Viterbo, Italy.
⁹. Wallon Agricultural Research Centre (CRA-W), Sustainability, systems and prospectives Department, B-6800 Libramont, Belgium.
¹⁰. Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), Craibstone Estate, Aberdeen AB21 9YA, UK.
¹¹. Technical University of Cartagena, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Cartagena, Spain.

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Abstract

• 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.

Keywords crop rotation lock-in intercropping multiple cropping networking

Corresponding Author(s): Antoine MESSÉAN

Just Accepted Date: 21 June 2021 Online First Date: 13 July 2021 Issue Date: 26 September 2021

Cite this article:

Antoine MESSÉAN,Loïc VIGUIER,Lise PARESYS, et al. ENABLING CROP DIVERSIFICATION TO SUPPORT TRANSITIONS TOWARD MORE SUSTAINABLE EUROPEAN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS[J]. Front. Agr. Sci. Eng. , 2021, 8(3): 474-480.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/10.15302/J-FASE-2021406
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/Y2021/V8/I3/474

Fig.1 From low diversity cropping systems to diversified cropping systems by means of intercropping, multiple cropping and/or extended rotations

Tab.1 Research projects of the European Crop Diversification Cluster

Fig.2 Relationships between crop diversification cluster projects.

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