ECO-DRESS aims at re-designing soybean-based cropping systems (SBCS) testing alternative patterns of strip cropping with Fagopyrum esculentum (buckwheat), a pseudo-cereal characterized by fast germination, fast growth and soil cover. It is commonly used for its allelopathic properties against weeds and as nectar provisioning plant host of parasitoids. Thus, strip cropping has been shown to deliver a greater range of agroecosytem services (AES) compared to sole crop references due to increased interspecific crop interactions, spatial-temporal niche differentiation, and higher infield habitat diversity.

ECO-DRESS focuses on the following specific objectives:

• Biennial plot experiments carried out in 2 sites comparing 5 cropping systems, to quantify the following provisioning, supporting and regulating AES.
• Different mechanical solutions for each crop-operational phase hence from sowing to harvesting.
• OFE is an opportunity of co-designing cropping systems following a bottom-up approach.
• A multicriteria analysis merging all the data.