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Crops better when grown together

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Sustainability and resilience are priorities in agriculture. A new analysis of four experiments with a combined 46 years of data shows that intercropping — growing multiple crops together — can increase yields, yield stability and soil fertility.

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Fig. 1: Maize intercropped with faba bean.

Li and colleagues.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Matthew R. Ryan

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  1. Matthew R. Ryan
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Correspondence to Matthew R. Ryan.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Ryan, M.R. Crops better when grown together. Nat Sustain 4, 926–927 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00768-6

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