Relay cropping as an adaptive strategy to cope with climate change

Climate change and its complex interactions with crops and cropping systems present challenges to agricultural production. Resilient systems that provide food security for a burgeoning population, built by improving crops and developing new alternative cropping systems, are needed to cope with the myriad impacts climate change has on agriculture. Relay cropping is a systems strategy to sustainably intensify crop production and provide environmental benefits. Relay cropping involves interseeding one plant species into an established crop, creating a temporary spatial-temporal overlap of the two crops. This system keeps living plant cover on the agricultural landscape most of the year, which has implications for adapting to and even mitigating climate change impacts. As global warming progresses, land area suitable for relay cropping or producing more than one crop per year will likely expand to more northerly latitudes. The following review specifically focuses on relay cropping, giving examples of how it can potentially improve agricultural system resilience and adaptability to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while also addressing potential limitations. More research is needed to improve crop genetics, crop combinations, and management practices best suited for relay cropping to further develop systems that can adapt to changing weed and insect dynamics as well as improve nitrogen and water use under current and future predictions of climate change.