Identifying successful wheat and faba bean teams in intercrops; a crop growth modeling approach

Growing cereal and legumes intercrops can result in yield advantages relative to growing these species in pure cultures. Whether or not yield advantages occur, depends on the combination of various crop traits, management practices and pedoclimatic conditions.

Identification of these factors requires a systems approach. Crop growth modelling is a tool that allows such an approach. We used two crop growth models for this purpose. We first used the existing Apsim crop growth model to simulate pure cultures and homogeneously mixed intercrops of wheat and faba bean throughout Europe. We also developed a crop growth model ourselves, called M³ (Minimal Mixture Model). We calibrated and validated M³ and then used it to simulate pure cultures and strip intercrops of wheat and faba bean that were grown in a field trial in Wageningen. We ran sensitivity analyses to identify crop traits and fertilizer regimes that result in yield advantages.