The United Nations estimates that by 2050 our planet will need to support a population of more than nine billion people. A growing population coupled with general economic growth means that the demand for food and agricultural products will grow significantly. But how do you increase food production without cultivating more land and impoverishing the natural landscape and the environment?

The research platform Cultivation systems in relation to crop rotation areas works from the hypothethis that it is possible to double the productivity per unit area compared to current grain crops through the use of cropping systems that take advantage of the entire growing season. 

The platform provides the opportunity to examine new biomass cropping systems and compare these with traditional crop rotations in relation to e.g. yield, bio refining quality, nitrate leaching, soil carbon content, weed flora, diseases, pests etc.

Based on this, a nationally and internationally unique data set will be created. This will be extremely valuable for the purposes of internal and external cooperation and will ensure a more knowledge based teaching and policy support.

Furthermore, the platform will provide well-defined biomass samples for further extraction, conversion and analysis to colleagues working in other research platforms.