The Land Institute received a two-year, $165,000 Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program.
The grant will support research to develop an analytical program to identify ecologically-based intercropping systems that can sustainably increase agricultural productivity and crop defenses. Specifically, the Land Institute will leverage a dataset of over 600 plant species and associated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to test predictive models for successful plant pairings based on phylogenetic relatedness and phytochemical similarity. Greenhouse trials will evaluate 8 candidate intercrops grown with 3 companion crops to validate the analytical approach. Additional studies will analyze plant volatile profiles to determine how species in polyculture may alter each other's chemical signatures. Outcomes include a user-friendly electronic application to facilitate on-farm intercropping selection. The research aims to advance ecologically-based intensification strategies under the AFRI program priority area of Sustainable Agricultural Systems.
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