Potential environmental benefits of intercropping annual with leguminous perennial crops in Chinese agriculture

Although human society has developed many eco-agricultural techniques, there remain challenges in terms of integrating their advantages and overcoming their limitations. Here we advocate the intercropping of annual stable crops with perennial legumes (IACPL) as an integrated and ideal eco-agricultural technique. This technique integrates the advantages of well-developed eco-agricultural techniques (such as cultivating legumes or perennial crops, adopting multi-cropping systems, conservation tillage, crop-animal systems and applying organic fertilizers), but could also potentially overcome their shortcomings. We believe that this integrated technique merits more attention and a detailed evaluation of its potential contribution to agricultural sustainability.