Yields in strip cropping: from science to practice

Introduction

Research has shown that crop diversity practices can have a positive effect on biodiversity, pest and disease control, yield and yield stability. Strip cropping is one of those crop diversification strategies and is defined as growing two or more crops side by side in long alternating strips of various widths. Strip cropping has gained attention in The Netherlands due to its low technological barriers. This is because the strip width can be chosen to fit the working width of available machinery. It is therefore suitable for farms that heavily rely on mechanization. Strip width is usually chosen rather large, from 3 meter wide strips up to 30 meter wide strips or wider, minimizing the degree of interaction between crops. As a result, the effect of strip cropping on the delivery of ecosystem services might not be the same as for other crop diversification strategies with a higher degree of
interaction between crops, for example mixed intercropping, that are currently
more frequently studied. However, quantification of these effects could play a
major role in accelerating the adoption of strip cropping. This PhD research
seeks to address this gap with a focus on crop yields in strip cropping in The
Netherlands.

Project description

This research is part of the Cropmix project and aims to quantify the potential of strip cropping to support stable food production. Data will be collected at two long-term system experiments and across a network of farms implementing strip cropping in The Netherlands.

In the first part of this project, the focus will be on yield measurements in two long-term strip cropping experiments, located in the Wageningen and Lelystad. The key questions we aim to answer are:

• What is the effect of strip cropping on yield compared to monoculture systems?
• What is the effect of strip cropping on yield stability compared to monoculture systems?

Following this, we will compare our experimental results with observations from on-farm strip cropping systems. The 25 arable farmers participating in the CropMix project each implement strip cropping in their own unique way, resulting in diverse systems that vary, among others, in soil type, crop selection, and management practices. The key questions we aim to answer are:

• Can we observe similar effects on these farms as seen in our experiments? So, what is the effect of strip cropping on yield quantity and quality on these farms?
• And if we see different results, what are the underlying reasons?

Lastly, we aim to integrate this research with
other projects within CropMix to synthesize our findings. Are the benefits of
strip cropping cumulative, or are there trade-offs to consider?