Developing cropping systems based on Crop mixtures in Halland

A workshop on intercropping of grain legumes/leys and cereal crops took place on 16 January 2018 at VÄXA office in Falkenberg, Halland. Organic livestock farmers and advisors from Halland province, as well researchers from SLU attended the workshop. It was organized in relation to EU’s Horizon 2020 project ‘Redesigning European cropping systems based on species mixtures (ReMIX)’, in which the Department of BioSystems and Technology, SLU, actively involves in.

The workshop kick-off with a presentation from Prof. Erik Steen Jensen (from SLU) on the different aspects of growing crop mixtures, results from various intercropping experiments in Europe, and the aims and structures of ReMIX project.

During the workshop, discussions took place between farmers, advisors and researchers, and identified several potentials and challenges for growing crop mixtures in organic livestock farms in Halland. In addition, various ideas regarding crop mixtures were presented by two groups, which composed of farmers and advisors. The next step is to develop these ‘possible crop mixing ideas’ with information from literature and other experts, and experiment them in farmers’ fields, as well as in SITES Lönnstorp (SLU’s research station) in 2018 and 2019.

Pauliina Jonsson from VÄXA, in Halland, organized and chaired the workshop, and she is the responsible person for ReMIX multi actor platform in Sweden. The workshop ended with Raj Chongtham (from SLU) answering questions and guiding farmers in answering the survey questions on crop mixtures.