Seminar: Sustainable food from diverse and perennial cropping systems
Come and learn where our new professor in cropping systems, Valentin Picasso, is coming from, and think of potential research collaborations together!
Date: 18 February 2026
Time: 11:00 - 12:00
Venue: Tammsalen, Ecology Centre, Ulls väg 16
Organiser: Department of Crop Production Ecology, SLU
Location: Online, Uppsala
Most of our food is produced in agricultural systems based on monocultures of annual crops, which depend on fossil fuels and pesticides, have negative environmental impacts, and are vulnerable to climate variability. Crop species diversity, over time in crop rotations, or over space in intercropping, often increases productivity, stability, and resilience.
Perennial crops live and produce harvest for several years, cover the soil continuously, protect the soil from erosion, maintain nutrients on the farm instead of polluting water, fix carbon, and protect biodiversity. Therefore, to increase the sustainability and resilience of food production we need to optimize cropping systems that are both diverse and perennial.
In this seminar, Valentin Picasso will discuss research from two types of diverse perennial systems. First, forage systems, including grasslands, pastures, and leys, which provide feed for livestock and are critical for global protein production. He has researched their production and environmental benefits, including beef grazing native grasslands in Uruguay, dairy based on highly productive leys in USA, and small scale silvopastoral systems in the Amazon. Second, he is researching perennial grain systems, which started to be developed only a few decades ago and can radically change agriculture.
Kernza intermediate wheatgrass is the first perennial grain crop, producing at the same time grain, forage, and deep roots. Valentin Picasso´s research addresses critical scientific questions needed to integrate Kernza into cropping systems. He has studied the physiology of reproduction and regrowth, establishment and harvest methods, weed dynamics and control, fertilization strategies, intercropping with legumes, forage nutritive value and utilization. He is also researching other perennial crops under development such as perennial wheat, cereal rye, sunflower, and legumes.
Participate in Tammsalen at the Ecology Centre in Uppsala or online.