CropMix: Driving the Transition to Agro-Ecological Crop Farming

In CropMix, crop diversity is seen as a step in the transition to sustainable crop farming. Strip cultivation, which involves growing different crops in narrow strips side by side, is one potential application. The project is funded by NWO's National Science Agenda, where the sustainability of cultivation systems is one of the agenda items proposed by citizens. CropMix's research consists of three work packages. Work package 1 focuses on ecological and agronomic research; it includes studies on above and below-ground crop interactions and the differences between monoculture and strip cultivation. Work package 2 examines the economic and other conditions necessary for farmers to switch to crop-diverse systems.

Accelerating the Transition

Work package 3 focuses on institutional changes (in regulations, culture, and contracts, for example), necessary to initiate transition pathways around strip cultivation. Barbara van Mierlo, sociologist and associate professor at Wageningen University & Research, leads this segment: "In developing the research proposal, we thought carefully about how we could actually accelerate the transition with all participants. We don’t just want to generate more knowledge, as researchers are accustomed to, but to explore actively together what options exist for change and how to overcome obstacles. This requires time. People need to get to know and trust each other and appreciate each other’s contributions."

The plan, therefore, was to set up living labs to experiment jointly in practice with potential solutions, such as for barriers related to current subsidy regulations for farmers. A guiding principle in designing the living labs is to clearly assign tasks and ensure a well-thought-out process. Supporting and guiding the living labs is the primary task of two coordinators. The team of action researchers in work package 3 and these coordinators support learning and change on two levels: within the consortium as a whole and in the living labs.

To succeed, the living labs also need to align closely with the experiences and wishes of the participants while remaining alert to opportunities for transition that arise outside the consortium. According to Van Mierlo, a second principle is to create and maintain diversity. This is achieved by setting up multiple living labs that cater to the specific interests of the participants and also focus on different future visions for strip cultivation.

First Six Living Labs

Luc van Veghel, a transition scientist and one of the coordinators of these living labs, explains their focus: "The idea behind the living labs is that something new like strip cultivation faces many barriers that prevent its widespread adoption. You can’t overcome these by merely gathering knowledge on how it technically works or what the yields are."

The first step was to identify the bottlenecks with the 25 participating farmers, as well as with provinces, supply chain partners, governments, interest groups, and nature and environmental organisations, which revealed 20 issues. These were presented at the first consortium meeting. Subsequently, the first living labs were launched around six themes that garnered the most interest.

Participants meet roughly every three to four months to discuss progress and decide who does what. Van Veghel notes two types of activities: "There are quite a few knowledge questions at the base. To answer these, we sometimes employ students. For example, MBO students from Terra MBO are working on a prototype irrigation system specially designed for strip cultivation. At HAS Green Academy, there’s now a task to map the supply chain risks of strip cultivation. Additionally, there's focus on institutional barriers. A master's student from WUR has made recommendations to reduce the administrative burdens of RVO."

Van Veghel observes that participants in the living labs are eager to work on shared solutions: "Partly because of the setup: we work from the questions that the participants themselves have. At the same time, there are situations where parties say they want something different, but system barriers prevent it. That makes sense, otherwise system change wouldn’t be so difficult. But discussing these issues together is the first necessary step to removing these barriers."

Cabbage, Fennel, Thyme

In North-East Groningen, farmer Gert Noordhoff has embraced strip cultivation since 2016. The open area where his farm is located is valuable for bird species dependent on it, such as the skylark, the meadow pipit, and the Montagu's harrier. On the clay where the water of the Dollard once flowed, he cultivates various crops in rotation next to each other. Cabbage varieties—white, red, and pointed cabbage—are ideally suited for organic strip cultivation: "The disease pressure of cabbage varieties in monoculture is relatively high. In strips, it's much lower." Depending on market demand, Noordhoff adds other crops, such as fennel, to his crop mix. He also experiments with herbs in strips, such as thyme.

Noordhoff joined the living lab searching for a solution to the irrigation problem in strip cultivation. "We really need to get to work on this," he emphasises. "When we plant a strip of vegetable crops in the ground in late May or early June, they need a lot of water. But that's not the case for the grain strip next to it. To apply strip cultivation effectively, you need a modified irrigation machine that can handle three-meter-wide strips without damaging or unnecessarily watering other strips."

He hopes that the prototype being developed will eventually make its way to the market. Besides participating in the living lab, he attends the grower meetings of CropMix: "We meet to compare the measurement results of trials on our plots and organise interesting visits, such as to a seed breeding company and a meeting on regenerative agriculture. For me, these visits are very valuable."

What has the project taught him so far? "The nice thing about CropMix is that it dispels the gut feelings that strip cultivation wouldn't work. I certainly don’t have the illusion that all of the Netherlands will now switch to strip cultivation or other forms of crop-diverse agriculture. But I do hope that with the parties within CropMix, we can take the next steps together. Let's do it step by step; that's perhaps the best pace to get the system moving."

"Positive Stories Needed"

Soil researcher Thea van Beers from the purchasing cooperative Agrifirm suspects that most crop farmers still do not consider strip cultivation an option. Yet, she believes that crop diversity, whether through strip cultivation or extensive rotation, deserves a chance in Dutch agriculture. "Before conventional growers will become interested in strip cultivation, they need positive stories about what they can achieve with it."

One of the living labs therefore focuses on bundling and sharing knowledge about strip cultivation so that farm advisors can offer handouts to farmers considering switching to mixed cultivation systems. Van Beers: "We are creating a number of fact sheets that allow growers to gain inspiration and see if strip cultivation fits them. We also indicate which pieces of the puzzle still need to be placed." She suspects that strip cultivation might not always be the solution: "In CropMix, a lot of ecological field research is done. I can imagine that we might conclude at the end of the project that strip cultivation can be beneficial for certain crop combinations. For a crop like onions, it seems that strip cultivation might not be so favorable. For instance, the fungal disease downy mildew thrives in moist conditions. Onions in an open field dry out faster than if they are sheltered in a strip between other crops."

Action Research

The strong focus on action research makes CropMix a special project, according to Van Mierlo: "As action researchers, we look at how we can facilitate a fruitful learning process that leads to new actions. It’s an iterative process where new ideas can emerge to try out. And then it’s always the question of what the sector gains from it, whether we could do something else, and what roles participants see for themselves."

She envisions that over time, new living labs will emerge to remove other barriers on the road to agro-ecological crop farming. While intended partners were initially somewhat hesitant before the project started, the project managers now see much greater interest. Van Mierlo hopes that mixed crop systems that enhance biodiversity in the fields will spread like an oil spill through CropMix and related projects: "We notice that agendas are opening up and that some participants are actually starting to do new things. It would be great if other parties also joined, seeing that this is something for them too. That governments would create opportunities and that the trade and logistics would develop along with it. And I expect that a deeper understanding of what strip cultivation can mean as a step in the transition to agro-ecological crop farming will emerge. And that together, we create new realities."