Diversified arable farming offers solutions for the green transition in agriculture

Stopping biodiversity loss, mitigating climate change and the need to adapt to increasingly changing conditions require changes in agriculture. We need solutions that promote biodiversity, increase carbon sequestration in soil, reduce emissions into the atmosphere and support the circular economy while enabling profitable production.

Diverse farming can improve the security of supply because it reduces the need for purchased inputs and improves the efficiency of their use. At the same time, plant disease and pest risks decrease, and the nitrogen added by legumes reduce the need for nitrogen fertilisers. Diversity improves the agricultural sector’s ability to cope with various disruptions and adapt to changing conditions.

Farming systems that include perennial crops with deep roots or catch and undersown crops increase carbon sequestration in soil. The decreased use of fertilisers and pesticides also reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

In 2023, we published a policy brief that presents three methods to support diverse farming and strengthen the agricultural sector’s resilience to change and security of supply.

• Improving profitability. Subsidy policy should provide incentives for diverse farming to make it more profitably than monoculture.
• Solving challenges in agriculture. Incentives for local cooperation by addressing diversification through crop rotation across farm boundaries.
• Increasing competence. Increasing competence in diverse farming by providing more resources for the farm-specific NEUVO system and expanding the system to training and peer learning.