The LEGUMINOSE project aims to increase the adoption of legume-cereal intercropping across Europe and beyond, offering a sustainable alternative to traditional monocultures. Tom Sizmur, a Professor in Environmental Chemistry and member of Team LEGUMINOSE, discusses how the project will not only enhance soil health but also address the challenges of expanding the market for intercropped products. He shares his vision for a future where crops are grown together as a polyculture, potentially revolutionising the way we think about farming and food production.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What is the LEGUMINOSE project about?
With LEGUMINOSE, we are aiming to increase the adoption of legume-cereal intercropping across Europe and beyond. In intercropping, two or more different crops are grown in the field at the same time. This can be done in alternate rows or as a mixture across the field.
What are the benefits of intercropping?
The most obvious and well-known benefit is that the legume is fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere. It is able to transfer some of that fixed nitrogen to the cereal plant. Hence, we can provide nitrogen from the atmosphere rather than nitrogen from inorganic fertilisers. However, our understanding of how exactly that happens is imperfect. With LEGUMINOSE, we want to understand this process better.
There are also benefits for farmers. For example, the threat of crop losses is lower. Farmers do not lose their entire field if one crop performs well and another does not. Furthermore, there is evidence for the potential benefits of intercropping, such as fewer weeds, fewer pest and disease issues. Thus, the amount of pesticides needed may be lower.
What can we expect from LEGUMINOSE?
We will not only better understand the nitrogen benefits associated with intercropping, but also pest benefits, weed control, and economic benefits. We can hopefully develop a market for intercropped products and better methods of separation during the harvest.
What are living labs and how will they be utilised in the project?
Living labs will be field experiments run on farmers’ fields. Twenty famers across the UK will participate. They will grow a monoculture of cereal, a monoculture of legume, and the cereal-legume intercrop
What are the main challenges in LEGUMINOSE?
One of the biggest barriers for farmers is that they need to find a market for their intercropped product. If they want to sell it for human consumption for a higher price, there is no real premium they can obtain.
We also need to develop the separation technology for the intercropped product. Europe’s agriculture is highly mechanised, but the current machinery is developed for monocultures. There is a need to adapt that machinery to intercropping or develop new machinery that enables you to grow multiple crops at the same time, to harvest them, and to separate them.
What is your vision for agriculture in 2050?
I would like to see more than two crops at the same time in the same field. I would really like to get away from the idea that you have to separate the crops into two different things. For example, if I make bread in my kitchen, I might put several different ingredients into the bowl and mix them together. Each of those ingredients would have been grown as a monoculture. Why did we grow them as a monoculture? Is it possible mix the ingredients in the field rather than in the kitchen? Is it possible to grow the ingredients as a polyculture and then create products out of them? However, this is a long-term dream. We are not quite there yet.
Curious to learn more about intercropping?