Project

Climate-smart resilience through diversified cropping systems (AgroMixNorth)

Active project

2023–2026

Project contacts

Selorm Kugbega / selorm.kugbega@sei.orgMatthew Fielding / matthew.fielding@sei.org

Climate extremes are projected to become more frequent and severe in Nordic and Baltic regions. In particular, spring droughts lead to a significant reduction in crop yields with negative economic consequences for farmers and society. Therefore, resilient production (eco)systems that deliver genuinely long-term sustainable cropping systems are required to secure crop productivity that will contribute to climate change mitigation.

The EU Common Agricultural Policy reform promotes a policy of sustainable intensification of agricultural land e.g. via crop diversification. Yet, little is known on the potential of diversified cropping systems and their influence on soil functioning (i.e. carbon sequestration potential, soil biodiversity, nutrient cycling) and food security. The aim of AgroMixNorth is to improve our understanding on the impact of crop diversification (both intra and inter-specific), soil functioning and food quality, and to evaluate potential synergies and trade-offs arising from specific agricultural management systems. Focus will be on systems that include an increase of the intra-specific diversity of cereal crops (eg. spring barley and oats) with and without intercropping of legumes or cover crops (e.g. clover, peas, faba beans).

Objectives

The project is constructed around the central hypothesis that diversified cropping systems, due to their spatial and temporal niche complementary, are more climate-smart and resilient cropping systems compared with mono-culture systems.

To foster a common network of interest focusing on the development of climate-smart and resilient agricultural management systems for Northern Europe.

Further our mechanistic understanding of how plant diversity relates to soil carbon sequestration through exploring interactions between soil chemistry and biological diversity
Evaluate potential trade-offs in relation to food quality, crop productivity, carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling.
Have an impact on policy and framing policy discussions in light of new management tools available for future-proofing food supply and mitigating climate change.

By adopting a multi-country approach AgroMixNorth brings together a range of complementary expertise that can foster scientific advances beyond national domains. The resulting scientific outputs will provide valuable knowledge on the advantages of crop diversification for regional EU policies while also future proofing the acceleration of global climate change and food security challenges.

AgroMixNorth will provide an experimental toolbox to evaluate synergies and trade-offs around multi-functionality of agricultural management systems, promoting soil biodiversity and optimizing nutrient cycling. The resulting experimental models adapted to Nordic and Baltic cropping contexts will be used for designing environmental monitoring and decision support tools towards improving the synergies between multiple ecosystem services.