The Diverfarming consortium, being funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, aims to increase diversification of farms and foster biodiversity, which is in freefall across the continent. Whilst farming remains at the heart of the EU’s socio-economic framework - accounting directly for 9.2 million jobs and for the single biggest spend in the EU budget (the Common Agricultural Policy) - there are still serious problems arising from the current dominant agricultural model.

The project leaders note that agriculture policy in Europe is based on intense mechanisation, excessive use of external inputs (water, energy, fertilisers, pesticides etc) and monocrop farming, and this has led to soil degradation, huge losses of biodiversity and plummeting numbers of farmers, with fewer, larger holdings concentrated in the hands of fewer people.

Portsmouth has been awarded £165,416 from a €10 million pot for a five-year project to increase the long-term resilience, sustainability and profitability of agriculture across the EU. The project aims to assess the benefits and minimise any limitations, barriers and drawbacks of diversified cropping systems, and to usher in low-input practices that are tailor-made to fit the unique characteristics of six EU regions, based on soil-type.

The six different areas are defined as ‘pedoclimatic’ regions; these are different microclimates within soil that stem from the combined effects of its temperature, water content and aeration. The pedoclimatic regions in Europe are: Mediterranean south and north, Atlantic central, Continental, Pannonian and Boreal.

Portsmouth researchers working on the programme will develop mathematical models of different diversified cropping systems, then test them in field experiments and case studies. Researchers will study the different approaches’ effects on soil-water-atmosphere-plant systems from farm to landscape level, for each of the soil-regions included in the project.

They will use the results to develop a simple decision support tool to advise on the most appropriate cropping systems and agricultural practices to make farming more productive and sustainable in the different regions, and will also provide guidelines for the most efficient uses of resources.

Dr Marianna Cerasuolo, a mathematics lecturer at the University of Portsmouth and Principal Investigator in Portsmouth’s role in the EU project, commented, “In view of the socioeconomic and environmental problems arising from monocropping and high-input systems, there is now a growing emphasis on crop diversification and optimised use of resources. Increase in land productivity by crop diversification with decreases in production and environmental costs with adaptation of the entire value chain could contribute to the growth of the European agrarian sector.

“In the end, Diverfarming focuses on research and innovation for rural development, with emphasis on developing new framework systems and business models adapted to the rural context of each pedoclimatic area of the EU, to foster sustainable growth through adoption of diversification, sustainable practices and efficient use of resources.”

Dr Cerasuolo and her team hope the project will provide:

• increased overall land productivity;
• more rational use of farm land and farming inputs (water, energy, machinery, fertilisers, pesticides);
• improved delivery of ecosystem services by increments in biodiversity and soil quality;
• proper organisation of downstream value chains adapted to the new diversified cropping systems with decreased use of energy;
• access to new markets and reduced economy risks by adoption of new products in time and space.