News
In this section you can find out first-hand about the latest news
Intercropping wheat and pea for improved baking quality: more diversity from the field to the bread basket in Germany
The acceptance and adoption of sustainable arable farming strategies does not depend on agriculture alone. Agroecological innovations always affect the entire value chain, i.e. all processing stages, as well as consumers. Together with 25 actors including farmers,...
Common Agricultural Policy (2023-2027) Year Two: Impacts on Flanders’ Arable Farmers Engaged in Intercropping
On 1 January 2024, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027 began its second year of implementation. For the Belgian region of Flanders, the CAP Strategic Plan includes benefits for farmers who adopt greener, more sustainable farming techniques and operations....
Intercropping as windshield could prevent water losses through evaporation
Due to the modernization of crop production, many methods to reach higher yields have largely been explored. Most of these methods involve improving the efficiency of the utilization of different resources like solar radiation, water and nutrients. One of these...
The potential of intercropping, accessible to children in an article by the American Science Journal for Kids
In early 2023 Wopke van der Werf and his team had the happy news that their meta-analysis on the productive performance of intercropping had been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, better known by its...
Short VIDEO RELEASE: sowing winter wheat and field pea
The year starts with short video releases from our partners in different locations around Europe and the world. This time it is our partner from Serbia, the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Novi Sad (Serbia), sending us a video where we can see the work...
The impact of legumes on weed control in sugarcane: news from Reunion island
As part of the IntercropValues project, eRcane and CIRAD have presented to the French Overseas Agricultural Innovation and Transfer Network (RITA) a summary of the knowledge acquired on sugarcane intercropping systems, at the annual steering committee meeting. This...
Designing low-input wheat production in Greece through intercropping with legumes
"Intercropping is the cultivation of at least two or more species in the same field for a portion of their biological cycle. It is an ancient agricultural practice that is primarily employed in developing countries. However, due to the increased interest in...
Experts from IntercropVALUES in the first Focus Group meeting on crop associations
Our colleagues Christine Watson from Scotland’s Rural College and Severin Hatt from the University of Bonn participated last 29th of November 2023 in the first meeting of the Focus Group on "Crop associations including Milpa and protein crops" that took place in...
Intercrop root phenotyping: toward a novel index of root interaction
Intercropping has been widely recognized as a valuable means to increase productivity and sustainability in agriculture. A substantial part of plant-to-plant interactions occurs in the underground where roots adopt different strategies, from niche differentiation and...
Short VIDEO RELEASE: soil sampling in Serbia
"The soil is a non-renewable natural resource, and therefore the care of its preservation is the role of everyone". Looking at soil health, what does soil sampling for scientific research look like? Our team in Serbia, led by the Faculty of Agriculture of the...
VIDEO RELEASE: introducing intercropping and intercropVALUES, from our Bonn meeting
As European projects want to bridge the gap between research and the general public, videos are a good tool to show people what the aim of the research is, why it is relevant, how the results can change people's lives, and how European project partners organise all...
First trials of lentil-based mixtures in Case Study # 10 (Anjou region, France)
Co-Innovation Case Study (CICS) #10 is composed of a group of 15 farmers in the Anjou region: all of them are in organic farming and some are members of a CUMA (Cooperative for the Use of Agricultural Equipment). Their shared long-term objective is to integrate...
Exploring organic faba bean – wheat intercropping for food in Switzerland
In Switzerland, faba bean is gaining more and more interest as a local source of plant-based proteins for food. This legume is nowadays mainly grown as green manure or animal feed, sometimes in association with wheat, triticale, or oat by organic farmers. Recently, a...
Press Release #2: IntercropVALUES partners met in Bonn after one year of activities
The second annual meeting of the IntercropVALUES project was held last week in Bonn (Germany). More than 60 participants, representing research teams from national or regional universities and technology institutes, development agencies, cooperatives, SMEs and rural...
Stimulating the growth of the organic sector by developing intercropping practices
The 17th edition of the European Organic Congress, organized by IFOAM Organics Europe and Ecovalia, is currently taking place in Cordoba, Spain. On the picture above, Eduardo Cuoco (IFOAM Organics Europe) presents during the European Organic Congress 1st session on...