Socio-economics, technology and logistics /
Technology and business models
Technological readiness for mixed cropping
Researcher
Lisa Marijke van den Berg
PhD candidate
Wageningen University & Research
During my bachelor's degree Health and Society, my interest in a holistic approach grew. This is why I started questioning the health of our current food system. After my Bachelor's, I thus started with a double Master's degree in Organic Agriculture and Communication, Health & Life Sciences.
I enjoy working on the cutting edge between the social sciences and life sciences and investigating agricultural challenges through a social lens. Previously, I looked into the adoption of water management practices by farmers in Ireland and the diversity of reasons to accept or reject management advice. Later, I delved into global livestock trade and transport patterns in France. Now, I am excited about this new challenge in the Netherlands on the intersection between agroecology and technology.
That’s what makes CropMix so interesting to me: different scientific disciplines collaborate with partners from the entire value chain to work on the transition to sustainable agriculture.
Research project
Project: 2.3.1. Technological readiness for mixed cropping
At the moment, the majority of agricultural technologies are being developed and designed in the context of monocultures. To increase the uptake of diversified cropping systems, forms of mechanisation will be needed. Nevertheless, technology developers are not yet focusing on these systems. We look into technological readiness since farmers interested in diversified cropping systems mentioned a lack of appropriate tools as a barrier to the incorporation of these systems into their farm management.
In this project, we will investigate the state-of-the-art technology and forecast future technological developments concerning mixed cropping systems. We will look into the effects of current and emerging technologies on the entire value chain, from input supply to the consumer. Moreover, we want to know what is driving and hampering developers and farmers to design and use technologies for mixed cropping systems.
With the results, we will develop a mixed cropping system industry technology roadmap with major technological players to drive improvements in crop mixture production system adoption and shape new value chains.
Related projects
Results and news
News and results will be presented here.
Researchers involved
- Marjolein Derks (WUR)
- Duygu Keskin (TU/e)
Related research
More research from work package 2
Our work packages
This work package focuses on above-ground and below-ground interactions. We look at the interactions between plants, crops, insects and other species living in the field and the differences between strip cropping and monocultures.
Work package 2 looks at the economic feasibility of investments for farmers to switch to more crop-diverse systems, such as strip farming, and what factors influence their willingness to engage in ecologically sound farming.
We want to identify different transition pathways applicable to different situations. Think of farmers with wide strips and long value chains, but also farmers with narrow strips marketing in a short chain. Or perhaps very different cropping systems that use crop diversity, such as agroforestry. We also look at what consumers and other stakeholders think and their role in the transition to more sustainable agriculture.
