On Monday 1 May 2023, our four field technicians started their measurements at the 25 arable farm affiliated to CropMix.

Over the next six months, we will monitor crawling insects, flying insects, birds and weeds and take soil samples to study soil life. We will do all the measurements - where the farmers' work in the fields allows - both in the strip cropping plots at our participating farmers' premises and on adjacent reference plots with full-field cultivation. They do this in four rounds and a winter round after the growing season, and we repeat the measurements every year. This allows us to compare crop-diverse systems with monoculture systems over five years.

Want to know more about the measurements or get in touch with the field technicians? Send us an email at cropmix@wur.nl.