Recommendations for overcoming barriers to crop diversification towards sustainable agriculture

Key messages from this policy brief include:

• The diversification of cropping systems is still limited due to barriers occurring at the farm level, along value chains as well as in the coordination between actors.
• Different barriers affect niche and mainstream value chains.
• Future policies should address barriers using a systems approach and should differentiate between innovations in niche and mainstream value chains.
• Barriers can be addressed by monitoring the uptake of crop diversification, reallocating public and private resources towards agroecological practices and value chains based on minor crops, providing financial support to actor networks to mitigate innovation risks, and communication campaigns to promote minor crops.