A growing number of organic farmers cultivate variety mixtures for their ease of use and their ability to buffer stress and environmental heterogeneity. Farmers have to choose the varieties for designing their mixtures, but few guidelines have been proposed so far. In the case of winter wheat, mixtures are usually assembled primarily based on yield. It is advised to mix varieties with complementary levels and sources of foliar disease resistances and to maintain homogeneity of maturity to ensure good quality. Other varietal characteristics might be considered, but very little is known about plant interactions within mixtures.
Furthermore, variety mixtures could also offer the possibility to finely tune the varietal choice to local context.
Solution
Co-design of assembly rules: To guide farmers with optimised composition mixtures, the approach is to identify assembly rules for combining mixtures components. A participatory approach based on workshops is particularly suitable for designing locally adapted mixtures. (→ see Practice Abstract #19)
Co-design and on-farm evaluation of farmers’ mixtures: The assembly rules are then mobilised for co-designing farmers’ mixtures, in accordance with farmers’ practices and local environmental conditions. To test for adequacy with farmers’ needs, the mixtures are assessed in onfarm trials.
Description
Practical recommendations: Stripe design allows for comparisons with the corresponding varieties in pure stand (Fig.1) and this type of trial is easy to manage on farm by farmers. Stripes can be divided into three or four to provide replicates.
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