Climate-smart resilience through diversified cropping systems – Identifying springboards in Nordic and Baltic agriculture (AgroMixNorth)

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 systems that deliver genuinely long-term sustainable cropping (eco)systems are required to secure crop productivity that will contribute to necessary 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 (e.g., carbon sequestration potential, soil biodiversity, nutrient cycling) and food security (e.g., food quality).

The aim of AgroMixNorth is to improve our understanding on the impact of crop diversification (both intra- and interspecific), 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 intraspecific diversity of cereal crops (spring barley and oats) with and without intercropping of legumes or cover crops.

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.