Barriers & Enablers of Intercropping and Enhanced Crop Diversification in the UK Trivett E.E¹ Bates L¹ Drummond C.J¹ ¹ LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) CV8 2LG, UK ABSTRACT Increasingly volatile weather conditions and extreme weather events have increased challenges in pest management in single variety cropping. A need to enhance Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has led to the use of plant species mixtures or ‘plant teams’ to optimise performance, improve yield stability, reduce pest and disease damage and enhance stress resilience in agricultural systems. Combined with supporting Integrated Farm Management (IFM) practices, intercropping, in field crop mixtures and other examples of enhanced crop diversification have gained attention in recent years due to the beneficial effects of soil fertility, nutrient recycling and pest, weed and disease management. However, uptake remains limited in the UK. Barriers to and opportunities presented by enhanced crop diversification are illustrated through a series of case studies from across three projects LEAF collaborated on between 2017 and 2020. Enablers and barriers to adoption of enhanced crop diversification are illustrated, concluding that a range of approaches will be necessary to support upscaling of these practices in the UK. We are grateful to of received the support and funding from the following projects to make this study possible. The project DiverIMPACTS - "Diversification through Rotation, Intercropping, Multiple Cropping, Promoted with Actors and value-Chains towards Sustainability" is supported by the European Union's HORIZON 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement no 727482 and by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number 17.00092. The DIVERSify project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under agreement No. 727284. The SEAMS project Funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and coordinated by the James Hutton Institute. Enablers Barriers • Soil health and fertility • Integrated Pest Management • Mixed farming systems lend themselves well to enhanced crop diversification • Investment and availability of machinery • Seed separation • Establishment • Lack of knowledge exchange Outcomes Through H2020 projects DIVERSify , DiverIMPACTS and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation project SEAMS, LEAF has been working with a range of UK farmers and stakeholders since 2017 on enhanced crop diversification projects. A farmer engagement workshop ‘Experiences, barriers and opportunities in plant teams’ was carried out at West Gilson Mains, Fife as part of the SEAMS project. The outcome of this event was a summary of plenary discussions between farmers, agronomists and industry representatives. Two farmer led case studies were delivered as part of LEAF’s contribution to the H2020 project cluster ‘Crop Diversification’ which includes the DIVERSify and DiverIMPACTS projects. Enablers of barriers to the uptake of enhanced crop diversification approaches such as intercropping , companion cropping and rotation extension were the focus of all three outputs. Enablers were classified as site specific farm business approaches which improved access, incentive or motivation to employ enhanced crop diversification strategies. Barriers were categorised as unresolved challenges or perceived risks in the adoption of such approaches. Companion, cover and intercropping and extended rotations all have potential to enhance sustainability in UK cropping. An increase in effective knowledge exchange to highlight opportunities, and advice and support to help overcome barriers will be required. Where the balance between risks against benefits is seen to pay off, an increase in the adoption of enhanced crop diversification is more likely. Farming 300ha’s of arable ground, intercropping trials have been a particular interest in the farms diverse 9 crop wide rotation. Seed separation i