Project

The ECODRESS ("ECOsystem services enhancement in DiveRsifiEd Soybean-based Systems") project, funded by the 2022 PNRR call, aims to diversify soybean-based cropping systems (SBCS) through intercropping with buckwheat.

ECO-DRESS consortium hypothesizes that the identification and adoption of innovative SBCS requires an integrated approach, combining a top-down process based on new scientific knowledge and methods to assess Agroecosystem Services (AES) and a bottom-up process based on farmers feedback based on their daily field experience.

For those reasons, project activities will be run in parallel at both plot and farm level. Different soybean-buckwheat intercropping patterns will be designed by an interdisciplinary team of agronomists, entomologists and agricultural engineers, later assessed for provisioning and regulating services, e.g. pollination, pest and weed control.

All the data collected from both plot and farm experiments will be used for a multicriteria analysis aiming at identifying the best intercropping configurations in different pedo-climatic and cropping systems conditions.