Crop growth modelling for intercropping

Start – End: 2019 –

Institution: ETH Zurich, Rothamsted Research

Authors: Chloe McLaren, Nadine Engbersen, Christian Schöb, Jonathan Storkey

Summary

Scientists have a fairly good understanding of the factors influencing growth of crops in monocultures. This understanding can be used to model crop performance under a range of environmental conditions. However, plant growth in mixtures might differ from their growth in monoculture, making crop growth models developed for monocultures of limited use to predict crop performance in mixtures. In this international collaboration, we aim at establishing crop growth models tailored towards crop mixtures and combine data from research conducted at the Aprisco de Las Corchueals with research conducted in Kenya.