Promoting crop diversification in European agriculture: first Conference on Crop Diversification

The temporal and spatial diversification of crops through practices such as rotation, multiple cropping, and intercropping (mixture of species) constitute key pillars of the transition towards agroecology. However, diversified farming systems will only emerge if clear benefits to farmers and society can be demonstrated, value chains are fully engaged, and crop diversification is supported by policies.  

The focus of the conference will be on all scientific aspects of diversifying agricultural and food systems, on the practical implementation of crop diversification in value chains, and on policy-related issues. In particular, the conference will address the following themes:

• benefits and practical experiences of crop diversification
• incentives to promote diversification along value chains
• approaches to assess the performance of diversified cropping systems at various scales
• approaches that foster crop diversification and accompany actors when transitioning  towards European sustainable systems
• policy recommendations to make systems more disposed to crop diversification.

The conference programme includes:

• Presentations from five keynote speakers with a wealth of knowledge and experience in agricultural and food system diversification
• Almost 20 parallel sessions, which touch on hot topics such as valuing crop diversification products and designing and optimising interspecific mixtures
• Three workshops addressing how to promote crop diversification across Europe, policy recommendations to make agrifood systems more disposed to crop diversification and challenges in breeding for crop mixtures
• More than 75 poster presentations
• Two exciting optional excursions

The conference provides a unique opportunity for scientists, practitioners, policy makers and other actors along the supply chain to gather and exchange about crop diversification.

The conference is convened by the DiverIMPACTS project together with the other members of the Horizon 2020 Crop Diversification Cluster: Diverfarming, LegValue, DIVERSify, ReMIX, and TRUE. This cluster was created with the objective to foster the co-design of technical, organisational and institutional innovations so that barriers to crop diversification can be overcome and diversified systems can be established and sustained.

More information

Contact

Dr. Antoine Messéan
DiverIMPACTS project coordinator
National Institute for Agricultural Research INRA
Avenue Lucien Brétignières
78850 Thiverval-Grignon
France
E-mail antoine.messean@inra.fr
Phone +33 1 30 81 52 09

Conference info

The conference will be held at the Congress Centre of Aquaworld Resort in Budapest, Hungary.

Conference website: https://www.cropdiversification2019.net

Registration (until August 31): express.converia.de/frontend/index.php

The crop diversification cluster

The projects in the crop diversification cluster have received funding from the European Union’s research and innovation programme Horizon 2020: Diverfarming (Grant Agreement No. 728003), DiverIMPACTS (727482), DIVERSify (727284), ReMIX (727217), LEGVALue (727672) and 727973 (TRUE).

More information about the Crop Diversification Cluster can be found at https://www.diverimpacts.net/about/crop-diversification-cluster.html