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The second annual meeting that took place at the headquarters of the Department of Rural Development and Environment of the Government of Navarre, in Pamplona (Spain) fully adopted a multi-actor approach. Besides of the usual sharing project results, participants visited a field experiment run by INTIA, the farm advisory service of Navarra.

In the experiment, different combinations of bread-quality wheat and soybean or lentils are tested. Participants could observe in the field the four mechanisms of interaction between intercropped plants: cooperation, competition, complementarity and compensation. Secondly, participants assessed the impact of intercropping on diseases. Generally, wheat seemed to suffer less from yellow rust when intercropped with lentils or soybean compared to wheat in sole stands. Finally, participants discussed the challenges in terms of harvesting and separation of intercropped cereals and grain legumes. Combinations that are easy to harvest are often difficult to separate, while combinations that are easy to separate are difficult to harvest. Increased efficiency in grain separation comes with higher costs, so the farmer needs to find a method which is cost-efficient too.

Implementing intercropping is not only a matter of agronomic and technological challenges. Farmers willing to try intercropping face marketing challenges and policy makers do not know what policies work best to support them. Three actors were invited to discuss with participants what authorities can do to support intercropping: the coordinator of the Organic Action Plan of the Navarra region, the person in charge of the food policy of municipality of Pamplona and a technician from INTIA advising the Spanish government on its protein crop strategy. Participants concluded that policy makers need more scientific evidence on the benefits and problems associated with intercropping Actors across the supply chain need to cooperate better. Participants also noted that challenges are very similar in European countries. An EU-wide strategy for intercropping is therefore necessary.