Strip farming benefits sustainability and biodiversity, but also has challenges

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For four years, the Innovation Centre for Organic Farming, together with companies and universities, has been exploring the possibilities of strip farming.

Biological effects

The main strength of strip farming lies in promoting functional biodiversity, i.e. increasing the abundance of organisms that minimise pests and promote pollination.

Microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi have both positive and negative effects on plant growth and yield. It has been shown that the abundance of e.g. fungal species in one crop is affected by the distance to another crop - the so-called edge effect. Mixing crops in stripes on individual fields also makes it harder for plant diseases to spread because they have to pass over non-susceptible crops.

This is the case with late blight, for example. However, there can also be a problem with early infection from waste potatoes that have a shorter distance to next year's potato strip.

Insects also react to the edge effect on other crops. For example, aphids spread more slowly the narrower the crop strip, and at the same time it becomes easier for beneficial insects, such as aphids, to thrive, making them an effective defence against unwanted insects. However, there can also be challenges in strip farming if, for example, cankers spread to the neighbouring strip from a grass strip.

Weed species may also appear in higher numbers, with some species being beneficial to the presence of microorganisms, insects and birds. But root weeds in particular can be a big challenge because strip farming is typically a no-till system and requires row crops with effective weed management to be incorporated into the system.

Cultivation effects

Experience from several strip cropping trials shows that yield levels do not change when switching to strip cropping. In the long term, strip cropping should ensure a more robust yield level because the greater biodiversity can protect against large fluctuations from year to year.

However, there may be situations where strip cropping results in lower yields, for example if it leads to the propagation of root weeds or the spread of caterpillars. Yields in the headlands will also often be reduced.

Reduced incidence of various fungal diseases in crops due to strip farming can also have a positive effect on product quality. It can increase the possibility of being able to sell the crop as a consumer product at a higher price.

Similarly, it must also be expected that healthy crops will utilise the added nutrients better. The better nutrient utilisation will also benefit the environment through less leaching and the climate through reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Less diesel consumption in robotic cultivation will also contribute to reduced_{CO2 emissions}.

Strip tillage is based on fixed lanes for all traffic in the field. The fact that there is only soil compaction in the tracks has a positive effect on soil structure. At the same time, strip tillage is suitable for robotic cultivation with narrow and light implements, which reduces soil compaction especially in the deeper layers. On the other hand, crusting can occur in the tracks themselves. However, crusting can also have the positive effect that rain is not soaked up in the tracks, allowing you to work in the field faster after rain.

Strip tillage needs to be well planned to fit the cultivation needs for several years ahead. In addition, the consequences for the farm's machinery must also be clarified. There are examples where strip farming in 9 metre wide strips can be practised without any significant need for new machinery and with virtually the same time spent in the field.

If you want to grow in narrow strips of, say, 3 metres, the transition to robots will be obvious, and you will in any case need to adapt your machinery. Especially manure spreading, irrigation and harvesting can be difficult to properly adapt to strip farming in narrow strips.

Economic aspects

Experience with strip farming is not yet so extensive that there is any certainty about how it affects the economics of plant production.

In a simple model with 9 metre strips and the same machinery, the economy is expected to be unchanged. However, there may be more crop damage in the headlands where the machines drive over the crops from strip to strip, and the cost of irrigation may increase because you have to water strips with less irrigation needs at the same time as watering the crop strips that need irrigation.

Similar challenges are faced if strip tillage is carried out with robots on narrow strips. A modelling has been performed with this system compared to conventional tractor cultivation in monoculture crops. The calculation showed that the strip cultivation system had lower labour costs, but slightly higher costs for machinery. On the yield side, the income is slightly lower because the headlands are laid out in grass, and overall, the modelling shows a small minus for the strip cropping system.

However, it is important to emphasise that the model calculation is dependent on the chosen assumptions, so you should always make a thorough economic assessment based on your own assumptions if you are interested in strip farming.

Accelerating the spread of strip farming to realise the biological and quality benefits will likely require that strip farming can trigger an additional subsidy. This has been done in the Netherlands, for example.

Read more about strip farming (report is in Danish):

Report: "Sustainability assessment of strip farming as a biodiversity measure in organic crop production" (pdf, 23 p.)

See more articles about strip cropping

Prepared in the project StripCrop, funded by GUDP and Promilleafgiftsfonden and Organic RDD, coordinated by ICROFS.
Participants in the project: Aarhus University, University of Copenhagen, Benfarm, Nordic Beet Research and Innovation Centre for Organic Farming.