Mixing it up - Mainstreaming crop mixtures in Scottish/UK and European farming (ENRA 2025 poster)

Growing crop mixtures can increase yields, reduce input costs and support biodiversity. We have identified species/variety combinations, management conditions, and machinery adaptations that optimise these benefits from crop mixtures. This work has direct impact on farming practice and uptake by Scottish farmers through >50 collaborative trials to grow mixtures on farms across Scotland. By working with farmers to design and monitor trials, we are quantifying mixture performance relative to monocrops and demonstrating the technical feasibility of mixture cropping. Trial results and technical information are shared with the wider agricultural community of farmers and agronomists through field events, webinars, open access reports, and via the online ‘Pick-a-Mix’ tool, which provides practical information about mixture agronomy. Broader uptake is anticipated from providing evidence to support policy implementation, as crop diversity is now recommended in the Scottish Government’s ‘Code of Practice on Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture’.