Adjusting cropping systems in order to increase their efficiency is a global issue. High yield and sustainability are the catchphrases of production in the 21st century, and agricultural production has to solve the balancing act between ecology and economy. Solutions have to be detected spatially explicit and locally adapted and accepted in order to be implemented successfully. Taking the North China Plain as an example, the productivity of arable land needs to be further increased by applying strategies to reduce or avoid negative environmental effects. Yield increases might be possible by developing improved cropping strategies operated by cropping designs. Taking modeling and simulation tools into account back up the acceleration of research attainments and the understanding of cropping systems. The present thesis embraces the designing and modeling of such a potential cropping system, to wit strip intercropping. Thus, the main goals of the study were to analyze, design, evaluate, and in the end model intercropping.

Dr. Heike Knörzer has a degree in Letters/History at the TU Darmstadt and worked as journalist. After her Master in Agronomy at the Universität Hohenheim, she made her PhD on the topic designing, modeling and evaluation of intercropping systems in China. She is working as scientific associate on biobased products and bioenergy crops.