Experimental Platform TRIO: Strip intercropping of annual and perennial wheat and herbs

The objective of TRIO is to develop sustainable and climate-resilient crop production systems via ecofunctional intensification based on the mixed cultivation of plants with distinctly complementary strategies of resource appropriation. The scientific goal is an improved understanding of complex soil-plant, plant-plant, plant-microbiome and plant-agricultural ecosystem interactions as a basis for sustainable crop production. Under the stress conditions of climate change, this is characterized by increased water and nutrient uptake from previously underutilized soil areas, more complete use of irradiation, higher storage of atmospheric carbon in the soil, more diverse, more resilient microbiomes in soil, roots and crops, greater attractiveness for flower-visiting insects and higher crop yields and quality. The increase in production and quality through the intensification of ecological processes, which is modeled here as an example for Hesse, is aimed at the health of soil, plants, animals, people and the planet and thus follows the “One Health” approach.
Using an experimental platform developed across contrasting locations, TRIO is quantifying and monetarily evaluating the ecosystem services of new combinations of resource-complementary crops. Model-based spatial and temporal upscaling of the experimental data generates site-specific knowledge on climate- and biodiversity-protecting and climate-change-adapted cultivation systems for the production of high-quality, diverse food in Hesse, which is directly incorporated into agricultural practice and advice via the associated partners. Quantitative market research approaches are used to determine the preferences / values of various stakeholders.
The three university sites in Kassel, Giessen and Geisenheim are working in the four project areas of soil-plant interactions, agricultural biocenosis, modeling and upscaling and socio-economic evaluation at four trial sites in Hesse (trial sites in Frankenhausen (University of Kassel), Weilburger Grenze and Groß-Gerau (JLU Giessen) and Darmstadt (Forschungsring e.V.), supplemented by five practical sites in Hesse and a very dry site at ZALF in Brandenburg. The field trials are complemented by large container trials at the Kassel (Landesbetrieb Landwirtschaft Hessen greenhouse facility) and Geisenheim sites.
At Frankenhausen, there are five field experiments set up for TRIO. Two pre-experiments were carried out in 2022 (field Schmalenbeck 2/1) and 2023 (field Lindenbreite 3). The three main TRIO experiments are carried out in 2024 (field Lindenbreite 3) and 2025/26 (field Schmalenbeck 1/1).
The site is embedded in the bigger Focus Areas East Hessian low mountain ranges (https://doi.org/10.4228/zalf-ksd3-qh47) and Central Hessian arable cropping areas (https://doi.org/10.4228/zalf-47e1-hf77).