Agroecological Service Crops (ASCs) are the plant species in a crop rotation that are grown to provide ecosystem services to the agroecosystem (e.g., cover crops, catch crops, living mulches, flower strips) rather than for yield purposes. ASCs were introduced and tested in organic greenhouse production systems as a diversification strategy. . ASC’s can contribute to:
- improving soil fertility and biodiversity in time and space,
- increasing the presence of beneficial insects,
- improving water and nutrient cycles
- providing plant nutrition,
- reducing weed, pest and disease prevalence in the following crop.
Indeed, they can be considered ʻecological infrastructure’ and ʻecological corridors’ within cropped fields, adding resilience to the system dynamics. They also allow environments to be re-colonised by wildlife, like flora or arthropods, in the event of a disturbance (e.g., tillage).
This factsheet written by project partner from CREA in Italy, explains why and how ASCs can be an innovative tool for provisioning ecological services in Southern European greenhouses.
Further information
orgprints.org: Agroecological service crops in Southern European greenhouse factsheet
organic-farmknowledge.org: Agroecological service crops in Southern European greenhouse (Greenresilient Factsheet)
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