Intermediate Multi-Services Culture (CIMS)
Multi-Service Intermediate Crops or CIMS, are crops sown during the intercrop period to provide various ecosystem services: recycling mineral elements (N, P, K, S, etc.), soil cover to limit erosion, management of weeds and pests, as well as storage of soil organic matter and carbon in the soil.
Objectives
It is an intermediate crop that allows the production of a number of ecosystem services (agronomic and ecological) through the production of agroecological functions which can mainly be:
- Trapping nitrates and sulfates.
- Providing nitrogen to the following crop.
- Recycling mineral elements (N, P, K, S, etc.).
- Storing soil organic matter and carbon.
- Reducing erosion by providing soil cover.
- Structuring the soil and increasing load-bearing capacity thanks to their root system.
- Improving soil water properties.
- Reducing pest pressure on crops.
- Preventing the development of weeds.
- Producing fodder and energy.
- Improving landscape aesthetics.
- Increasing biodiversity by promoting earthworms and beneficial insects.
They are not intended to be harvested and are destroyed before planting the cash crop. Their biomass is returned to the soil to promote nutrient recycling to the following crop and thus produce various ecosystem services with variable levels of expression depending on the species and their technical itinerary, notably the timing and method of destruction and incorporation into the soil.
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Different types of CIMS
CIMS can be grouped into 5 main types.
Nitrate Catch Crops (CIPAN)
Nitrate catch intermediate crops respond, from a regulatory standpoint, to an environmental objective of protecting water quality against pollution by nitrates of agricultural origin.
Energy Cover Crops (CIVE)
Energy cover intercrops aim to produce biomass for energy by being used as input in an agricultural methanization unit.
Catch Crops
Catch crops can be distinguished from other intermediate crops by an objective of production valorization, meaning they are harvested. Within a crop rotation, the catch crop thus optimizes the use of available agricultural land.
Intercrops
Intercrops aim to reduce weed presence or to structure the soil.
Green Manures
Green manures aim to regenerate soils and their fertility.
Which species to choose?
The choice of CIMS depends on the intended objective (soil structuring, biomass, fodder, nitrate trap, etc.), the crop rotation or succession, soil type, and equipment.
Species mixtures are preferred to achieve better CIMS efficiency.
The main species are:
- Legumes: Fava bean, clover, vetch, sweet pea, forage pea.
- Grasses: Triticale, oat, forage sorghum, rye, millet, moha.
- Crucifers: Mustard, rapeseed, turnip rape, radish.
- Others: Sunflower, phacelia, buckwheat, nyjer.
Sowing
Before starting with CIMS, it is important to carefully consider how the chosen species will be sown.
| Equipment | Advantages | Constraints |
|---|---|---|
| Seed drill combination |
|
|
| Broadcast seeding
with cultivator |
|
|
| Spreader seeding
centrifugal then cultivator |
|
|
| Direct disc seed drill |
|
|
| Tooth seed drill |
|
|
Destruction
Depending on the CIMS established, the destruction will be more or less effective depending on the chosen method.
Effects on the rotation
Adaptation to the rotation
Adaptation to the following crop
Points of caution
Thus, a CIMS can provide various ecosystem services and is therefore multi-service, such as trapping nitrate and providing mineral nitrogen to the following cash crop with the aim of reducing inputs, or purifying drainage water of nitrate ions while maintaining the yield objectives of main crops, or fighting erosion through soil cover, etc.
However, some of these objectives may be mutually contradictory, requiring compromises between sought services to determine the desired level of expression for each. Indeed, it is unrealistic to think that a CIMS can produce all ecosystem services at a high level of expression in all situations.
The design of species assemblies and the technical itinerary of the CIMS will determine the compromise of ecosystem services produced by the CIMS in a given production situation and pedoclimatic context.
Finally, if species are poorly chosen and their technical itinerary poorly adjusted, CIMS can also produce disservices, such as increased pathogens or weeds. Vigilance is needed to minimize these disservices by carefully designing the species mixture or the timing of destruction and incorporation of the CIMS.
Limits not to be ignored
Beyond additional costs of €30 to €100/ha (seed purchase, cultural practices) and sometimes increased labor time, several disadvantages may be encountered. Continuous cover can favor certain diseases or pests:
- Slugs: Maintaining a humid and protected environment favors the slug cycle, even with less palatable covers (mustard, phacelia, oat).
- Aphids: Vectors of barley yellow dwarf virus, they are favored by intercrops based on cereal straws.
- Crane fly or flies on beet or corn: attacks are sometimes favored by certain cover crops such as clovers, ryegrass or cereal regrowth (and even mustard).
- Voles: Depending on the year, the suppression of tillage and maintaining cover during the intercrop period are also reported as risk factors for vole proliferation.
- Presence of covers from the same family as the cultivated species increases certain pest risks. It seems preferable to establish species little or not present in the rotation or, at least, to alternate species families.
- Green manures limit the use of false seedbeds during the summer period. Their establishment must therefore be reasoned according to field weediness.
- Slower soil warming in spring: Species choice and especially destruction timing can avoid this risk. For crusting or hydromorphic soils, an overly developed or flattened cover can pose problems for establishing the following crop, especially if no-till is planned in the cover crop without destroying the intermediate crop (mustard sometimes causes problems, phacelia seems interesting).
- Some cover crops can have depressive effects on the following crop if too developed. They consume nitrogen to the detriment of the following crop: this is particularly true of perennial grasses (ryegrass, cereals) or radish before a spring crop. Rapeseed can have a marked depressive effect on following crops, such as corn.
The implementation of intermediate crops must be reasoned by considering the entire technical itinerary in coherence with the rotation: species choice (or variety), their mode and dates of establishment and destruction are all elements to integrate, not forgetting their positive or depressive effects on parasitism and weediness in following crops.
Regulatory point
In "nitrate vulnerable zones," representing 80% of arable land for arable crops in France, CIMS with a CIPAN objective are mandatory for at least three months per year in long intercrop periods, except for exemptions.
Further reading
- Intermediate crops - Burgundy Chamber of Agriculture
- Multi-Service Intermediate Crops (CIMS) - Occitanie Chamber of Agriculture
Sources
- Context, Concepts and Definition of Multi-Service Intermediate Crops - Eric Justes and Guy Richard - INRA
- Multi-Service Intermediate Crops (CIMS), new allies of your farms - Departmental Council of Haute-Garonne
- The CIMS - DRAAF Nouvelle Aquitaine
- Intermediate crops - Burgundy Chamber of Agriculture
