News
In this section you can find out first-hand about the latest news
Marketing lessons from Scotland: launching of a product coming from intercropping
Product sales are essential for the survival of any food or drink business. Businesses can take different approaches, depending on the product, target market, and ambition. As part of the IntercropVALUES project, the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society Ltd...
Overcoming adoption barriers to intercropping: insights from Co-innovation Case Study #2 (Sweden)
On January 29th 2025, the Swedish Agricultural University Partnership Alnarp, along with the Swedish CICS#2 and the project “Bönan till Bordet” held a workshop titled “Hur får vi bönan till bordet?” (“How do we get beans to the table?). Twenty-five participants from...
Intercropping wheat and pea for improved baking quality: more diversity from the field to the bread basket (Germany)
The main aim of the German CICS#5 (Co-innovation Case Study) is to tackle processing barriers and create solutions and knowledge on the cultivation, milling and baking of wheat grown as an intercrop with pea. The German CIC#5 is a partnership between the University of...
Intercropping to suppress weeds and mitigate pest damage: a snapshot of what partners have observed in the field
Another year another (inter-) crop. But the years are so variable. More unpredictable weather affects cultivations, crop development, and harvest. With all these variables, figuring out a blueprint to grow intercropped organic oilseed rape is tricky. A group of...
Citizens discover intercropping at the Municipal Botanical Museum in Milan (Italy)
In the framework of its activities addressed to citizens, last May 17 the Municipal Botanical Museum ‘Aurelia Josz’ in Milan organized a free visit to its garden. On the occasion, the Museum curators invited CREA’s researchers Daniele Cavalli and Luciano Pecetti–who...
Scotland: lessons learned from the launch of a new culinary oil made with intercropped organic oilseed rape
Four years after the launch of ÒR-GANIC cold-pressed organic rapeseed oil, the directors of the company got together to reflect on progress. SAOS, an IntercropVALUES partner, facilitated the discussion. ÒR-GANIC is a Scottish high value culinary oil, made with...
A first direct experience with intercropping for students in Italy
A group of about 25 international students (representing several Countries from Europe, Africa and Asia) engaged in the Master’s course on Agri-food Sustainability at the University of Pavia, Italy, visited CREA Lodi on April 11th. They were accompanied by Dr...
VIDEO RELEASE: Pest reduction in horticultural crops through intercropping in Navarra (Spain)
Within the framework of the INTERCROPVALUES project, the public company INTIA has developed a case study of co-innovation (CICS 8) in agriculture based on the reduction of pests in horticultural crops with the involvement of different agents in the sector with whom...
Lock-ins in Denmark are a barrier to intercropping practices and food system innovation
By Emilie Hansted Berning, Pernille Aavild Juhl, Ane Kirstine Aare and Henrik Hauggaard-Nielsen, Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University (RUC). Denmark’s export-oriented agricultural sector, driven by strategies to maximize production per input unit...
Does white lupin like the belowground company of wheat?
In a previous project’s news (November 2023) we emphasized that a great deal of plant-plant interactions in intercropping take place in the hidden root zone, and presented a rather simple phenotyping pipeline to measure root traits based on rhizoboxes. These boxes...
Fostering Collaboration and Innovation in Switzerland in Culinary Practices
Over the past few months, the IntercropVALUES team at FiBL has been focused on strengthening connections within the value chain and identifying barriers related to intercropping wheat and faba bean for food production. In May, the team organised a multi-stakeholder...
Two Years of Lentil Trials: Progress, Challenges, and Future Plans in CICS #10
Two years of agronomic trials: where does CICS 10 stand? In 2023, a group of farmers in the Anjou region began a series of full-scale experiments on lentil-based associated crops, with the aim of marketing these lentils to local caterers. A year later, the group's...
Faculty of Agriculture at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki: A look back at 2024
The Faculty of Agriculture at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), a key partner in the IntercropVALUES project, has been actively advancing intercropping practices through innovative research, stakeholder engagement, and field experiments. Over the past year,...
Identifiying lock-ins and barriers to intercropping through the value chain
In the context of the current agricultural specialisation in Europe, intercropping, an agroecological practice corresponding to mixtures of arable crops in the same field, is particularly relevant. By reintroducing diversity in arable lands, it could help...
Is Intercropping Feasible in Real-World Situations? Questions from Curios Swedish Food System Stakeholders
Drone view of the intercropping of wheat and pea experiment in Lönnstorp (pic: Ryan D) Cropping systems in Southern Sweden are highly specialized; focused on producing arable cash crops with a high dependence on external inputs such as fertilizers, weed control...