At the 8th European conference organized by the European Agroforestry Federation in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Christian Schöb (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos) presented an invited talk in the session “More than simple: increasing tree and shrub complexity in agroforestry” and presented results on complementarity and facilitation mechanisms in polycultures and how to harness diversity in agriculture.

In this context, he also highlighted the suboptimality of current modern cultivars for diversified crop systems and the potential benefits for breeding for mixtures. The identification of traits relevant for mixed cropping are a component of the T3.2 work in COUSIN that is currently underway at URJC.