A new study shows diversifying crops beyond a narrow selection leads to a range of ecosystem improvements while also maintaining or improving yields.

Some marketing and agricultural policy considerations will have to change for farmers to adopt diversification practices more widely, however, according to coauthor Matt Liebman, a professor of agronomy at Iowa State University.

For the study in Science Advances, researchers analyzed the results of 5,188 separate studies that included 41,946 comparisons between diversified and simplified agricultural practices. An international team of researchers carried out the study, known as a meta-analysis, and looked for patterns in the mountains of data collected in previous field studies.

The results showed that in 63% of the cases examined, diversifying crops enhanced ecosystem services while also maintaining or even improving crop yields.

“The overall conclusion is there’s a lot to be gained from diversifying cropping practices,” says Liebman. “Across many different countries in many different climates and soils, with many different crops, the general pattern is that with diversification, you maintain or increase crop yields while gaining environmental benefits.”

Liebman says barriers related to government ag policy, market considerations, and the dissemination of data discourage farmers from adopting many of the diversification practices examined in the study. But showing that such practices do not depress yields, and in some cases increase them, might encourage farmers to consider the practices.

Many current policies and market conditions incentivize farmers to focus on a few highly productive and profitable crops. In Iowa, that means corn and soybeans are grown on the majority of cropland. But Liebman says rethinking those considerations, as well as working with farmers to transfer knowledge that allows them to gain confidence with diversification, could lead to wider use of the practices.

Read the full article about diversifying crops by Fred Love at Futurity.