What exactly is an intermediate crop?

By covering the soil between crop rotations, they create synergies with other crops. Thanks to the planting of intermediate crops, the conditions for planting the next main crop are greatly improved. Moreover, by optimizing their plant cover, farmers can limit the use of herbicides on their rotation to control self-propagating plants. Their ability to compete with these weeds helps protect main crops.  

Intermediate crops are an excellent catalyst for storing carbon in soils, a key factor in addressing the ever-growing challenges of climate change. The plant’s photosynthetic activity stores atmospheric CO2 as plant biomass (roots, stalks, leaves, seeds), which will then be biodegraded by the environment’s biodiversity and stored as stable organic matter in the soil. 

What’s more, the roots of intermediate crops structure the soil, reduce soil erosion and the leaching of nutrients, which will then be used by the plant. As such, they improve the soil’s ability to absorb water and nutrients and, at the same time, reduce temperature and disease stress for the next crops.  

When it comes to biodiversity, the plant cover created by intermediate crops offers bees, insects and other species an appreciable habitat and food resource.  

It also protects the soil from the sun’s rays in summer, which are harmful to micro-organisms that live in the superficial layers of the soil and play a role in the carbon cycle. It creates a link between the two main crops for fauna and micro-organisms in the environment.