The participating parties in the precursory Seed Money Project have indicated that they will work on projects that contribute to short and medium-term prospects of “large-scale agriculture with small-scale mechanization”. An important potential benefit of this system is the improvement of soil health and that strip cropping becomes possible. In the context of strip cropping, it is known that cultivation in strips (or beds) has benefits for crop health and the utilization of light, water and nutrients. The mixing of crops in combination with plant specific treatment is still far from a reality. That is why it was decided to put the concept of strip cropping (in combination with CTF) as a priority of the project.
The aim of the modelling is to obtain the design criteria for the optimal dimensions of this agricultural system. This concerns, for example, the length and width of cultivation strips, the width of the paths. All this in relation to the weights and size of the machines involved. The model study should answer the question of which dimensioning offers the best perspective for realizing the set goals, such as reduce soil compaction, limited use of inputs, physical yield, rotation and effective operations.
The results of the modelling serve as input for the designs in Work Packages 2 to 5. Because this concerns an optimization issue, periodic interaction between work packages is provided.