Barriers and enablers of intercropping and enhanced crop diversification in the UK

Increasingly volatile weather conditions and extreme weather events have increased challenges in pest management in single variety cropping. A need to enhance Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has led to the use of plant species mixtures or ‘plant teams’ to optimise performance, improve yield stability, reduce pest and disease damage and enhance stress resilience in agricultural systems. Combined with supporting Integrated Farm Management (IFM) practices, intercropping, in field crop mixtures and other examples of enhanced crop diversification have gained attention in recent years due to the beneficial effects of soil fertility, nutrient recycling and pest, weed and disease management. However, uptake remains limited in the UK. Barriers to and opportunities presented by enhanced crop diversification are illustrated through a series of case studies from across three projects LEAF collaborated on between 2017 and 2020. Enablers and barriers to adoption of enhanced crop diversification are illustrated, concluding that a range of approaches will be necessary to support upscaling of these practices in the UK.