Martin Krokstorp

Martin Krokstorp is the ninth generation at the family farm in the southwest of Sweden. He has been managing the farm since 2017, but already in 2016 he and his father started to change their system to try to implement as many principles of Conservation Agriculture as possible. A healthy crop rotation, soil cover, minimal tillage, direct seeding and of course lots of cover crops are now all important pieces of their puzzle. Martins long term goal is to manage the soil in such a way that it will be possible to grow healthy crops there for many generations to come. On his 440 hectares he grows winter wheat, spring barley, spring oats, oilseed rape and tall fescue. But the most important crop in his crop rotation is the only one he doesn’t harvest; cover crops.

Since 2016 he has had a lot of trials on his farm. Most of the time self-founded. The lack of national research as well as advisory organizations with knowledge and experience about conservation agriculture has contributed to “learning by doing” and “trial and error”. The system approach is constantly developing, but Martin is fully convinced that this is the way forward on his farm.