IntercropVALUES project meets in Bonn to prepare the next months of work

The second annual meeting of the IntercropVALUES project was held last week in Bonn (Germany). More than 60 participants, representing research teams from universities and national or regional technology institutes, development agencies, cooperatives, SMEs and rural networks, met from October 4 to 6 at the University of Bonn, the host institution of the meeting.

The project aims to exploit the advantages of intercropping to design and manage productive, diversified, resilient, profitable and environmentally friendly cropping systems that are acceptable to farmers and agri-food chain actors. This ambitious objective involves the development of 13 co-innovation case studies from the EU (9), UK (1), Serbia (1), Switzerland (1) and Mozambique (1). The members of the so-called ISSC, representing both conventional and organic farming, as well as short and long value chains, have set their own objectives and agenda during this first year.

The project began last November, when most of the participants met in Montpellier (France), where CIRAD, the French agricultural research and international cooperation organization and lead institution of IntercropVALUES, welcomed them. 

Now, after a year of activities, the time has come to share the first results, which are linked to the methodologies put in place in the different groups to ensure that experiments, testing and data sharing are carried out with common protocols and understanding. The success of the project and the subsequent impact are closely linked to the strength and robustness with which these first steps are taken.

At this meeting, the persons responsible for each ISSC shared information and explained their objectives and activity plans to the scientists and other members of the consortium. Researchers from the environmental and social sciences, humanities and agronomy will collaborate with them throughout the process. 

In Bonn, with a participatory approach (hybrid format) and very diverse sessions, participants addressed topics such as the identification of barriers to the adoption of crop mixtures and the presentation of the results of a comprehensive survey previously designed and completed by the ISSC members, or the description and measurement of the ecosystem services of intercropping.

Some intercropping trials began in the spring and others will begin this fall. Combinations include oat-lentil, wheat and legumes such as faba bean and pea, pea-barley or oat-lupin, sugarcane and cover crop (on Reunion Island), and even vegetable intercropping, such as broccoli and vetch. Crop mixtures have proven to be beneficial for many reasons (such as less fertilizer and pesticide use, more biodiversity, more water retention and benefits for pollinator diversity), although new research results will come after four years.  A step forward in this project will be to find market opportunities for products from intercropping, such as bread, pasta or beer, based on attributes such as taste, health, price or reduced environmental impact.

About the project

IntercropVALUES, funded by the European Commission through the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program, has a project website (www.intercropvalues.eu) and several social media channels where stakeholders can find more information about its activities and results in the coming years. A calendar of events, a section of scientific publications and news are already available on this website.

The project is also planning two summer/winter courses for postgraduates, webinars for the processing and machinery industry, training courses for the agricultural sector and advisory personnel, and two multi-stakeholder conferences.

INICIATIVAS INNOVADORAS participates as communication manager and also assists in the coordination of the project.