Come Out of a Hiding Place: How Are Cover Crops Allocated on Finnish Farms?

Pirjo Peltonen-Sainio,Lauri Jauhiainen

doi:10.3390/su14053103

Abstract

Cover crops (CCs) may provide many ecosystem services for crop production systems, and interest has increased in the cultivation of CCs among Finnish farmers. Piloting farmers applied for agricultural payments to support the cultivation of CCs (AP-CCs) in 2020. Novel data with a total of 34,515 field parcels with CCs from 5747 farms was used to assess how farmers allocated CCs depending on farm and parcel characteristics. Pioneering farmers often had conventional, large farms with cereal areas exceeding 25%, and expertise with special crop(s). Conventional farmers seemed to allocate CCs to large parcels. The allocation of CCs was not solely dictated by cash crops. Cover crops were planted more frequently in parcels close to waterways. Conventional farmers allocated CCs to parcels with a history of highly monotonous cereal sequencing. Hence, farmers seem to benefit from ecosystem services provided by CCs: increasing spatial diversity, reducing the environmental footprint, and improving soil health. This novel understanding is used to support the implementation of CCs beyond pilot farms and to develop a decision support system for their allocation. The ultimate goal is to support a transition towards more sustainable crop production systems with currently underutilized CCs in high-latitude conditions.

Highlights

Farmers allocate cash crops to field parcels by acknowledging crop features, parcel characteristics, management requirements, and logistics [1]
When ideotyping farmers who benefited from the available subsidies, i.e., those who had applied for AP-cover crops (CCs) in 2020, it was found that they were most frequently conventional farmers with large farm sizes of ≥100 ha of agricultural land, ≥25% of field area dedicated to cereals, and they cultivated special crop(s) (Table 1)
Pioneering farmers who applied for agricultural payments available for the cultivation of CCs in 2020 were characterized to have conventional, large farms with cereal areas exceeding 25% of their agricultural land, and expertise in special crop production

Summary

Introduction

Farmers allocate cash crops to field parcels by acknowledging crop features, parcel characteristics, management requirements, and logistics [1]. To support farmers in rational land use and to help with land use changes, free-of-charge decision-support systems have been developed to support the allocation of field parcels according to their characteristics and productivity as either sustainably intensified parcels for food production, extensified parcels for greening purposes, or for afforestation to mitigate climate change [2]. Diverse choices of cover crops (CCs) with many usages, such as under-sown CCs, over-wintering CCs, catch crops, and break-CCs, are not included in any of the decision support tools offered for Finnish farmers. Decision support systems need to acknowledge special local features of the farming systems—and high-latitude conditions bring with plenty of specialties for agricultural production, e.g., concerning crop choices, crop growth dynamics, production risks [7–10] and risks to environment [11]

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