Legume-cereal intercropping: Research insights on benefits, challenges and adoption strategies

Written by Kasper Bo Sørensen and Tiffanie Faye Stone

Legume-cereal intercropping holds immense promise for sustainable agriculture, offering environmental and economic benefits. But what do farmers and stakeholders think about adopting this practice? Our latest research provides a detailed analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with intercropping across Europe.

What we discovered

Through focus groups with stakeholders in seven European countries, as well as Pakistan and Egypt, we gained a clear understanding of the factors influencing intercropping adoption:

  • Strengths: One of the greatest strengths of grain legume-cereal intercropping lies in its environmental benefits. Legumes can fix atmospheric nitrogen, which reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers, enhancing soil health and biodiversity. Additionally, intercropping improves resilience against pests, diseases, and climatic variability, stabilizing yields. Overall, farmers can achieve higher productivity with fewer chemical inputs, reducing costs and environmental footprints.
  • Weaknesses: Despite these benefits, challenges persist. Farmers highlighted limited access to region-specific seed combinations and logistical hurdles in processing and marketing mixed grains. Additionally, many farmers perceive intercropping as complex and risky. Robust advice and financial incentives are lacking. These challenges deter widespread adoption of intercropping.
  • Opportunities: The growing demand for plant-based proteins and alignment with the EU’s Green Deal create significant opportunities. Developing markets for both human-grade and feed-grade grains could unlock economic potential for farmers.
  • Threats: Barriers such as inconsistent policies, a lack of financial incentives, and resistance to change within established agricultural systems pose significant challenges. Climatic variability and the absence of region-specific solutions exacerbate these issues.

How we can support intercropping adoption

Our findings emphasise the importance of tailored strategies to help farmers overcome barriers. We identified five interconnected systems that play a crucial role in widespread intercropping adoption:

Strategies for legume-cereal intercropping
  1. Farm systems: Developing and testing region-specific seed combinations is foundational to intercropping’s viability. These combinations must balance productivity with environmental benefits, ensuring that the practice is not only effective but also sustainable under diverse farming conditions.
  2. Food systems: Establishing robust supply chains to process, market, and sell intercropped products is essential. Tailored market development for both human-grade and feed-grade grains can unlock economic opportunities for farmers, ensuring fair returns and reducing financial risks.
  3. Advice systems: Farmer-led networks, supported by researchers and community organisations, provide vital platforms for knowledge sharing. Accessible training programs and actionable insights enable farmers to adopt and adapt intercropping practices effectively, empowering them to navigate challenges and optimise outcomes.
  4. Governance systems: Supportive policies and incentives are critical to lowering barriers of entry. Financial mechanisms such as subsidies, risk-sharing tools, and regulatory adjustments can facilitate the integration of intercropping into mainstream agriculture, making it an appealing option for more farmers.
  5. Networking systems: Collaboration among farmers, policymakers, researchers, and industry stakeholders fosters alignment, innovation, and coordinated strategies. These networks encourage the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and best practices, accelerating intercropping’s adoption and scaling its impact

Together, these interconnected systems create a cohesive framework that can unlock intercropping’s full potential, advancing sustainable and resilient agricultural practices across Europe.

Read the original research article

Explore our full findings and recommendations in our latest publication. The research article by Stone et al. was published in the Agroecology and Sustainable Food System (Stone et al. 2024). It dives deeper into our results from the stakeholder focus groups, provides in-depth analysis of the challenges and opportunities of legume-cereal intercropping and offers actionable recommendations for fostering its adoption.