Crop diversification through strip cropping increases arthropod abundance across trophic levels and enhances biocontrol potential

Crop diversification aims to support arthropod populations and promote natural pest control processes that are fundamental to sustainable crop production. A practical form of crop diversification is strip cropping, with crops grown in adjacent strips that vary widely in configuration across farms. However, a systematic, farm‐scale assessment of arthropod abundances and natural pest control in strip cropping is lacking.

We compared arthropod communities in cereals and potatoes in strip‐cropped and monoculture fields in 2024 across 22 farms in The Netherlands, with similar crop management within each comparison. Strip‐cropped fields encompassed a variety in strip widths and number of crops, and included both conventional and organic farming systems. We used sweep‐net sampling to quantify arthropod herbivore and natural enemy abundances, and sentinel eggs to measure predation.

We identified 233,478 arthropods and analysed 17 herbivore taxa, including both potential pest and non‐pest herbivores, and 12 natural enemy taxa. Strip cropping consistently increased the abundances of a wide range of herbivore and natural enemy taxa relative to monoculture fields. On average, herbivores and natural enemies increased by 33% and 32% across all taxa in cereals and by 74% and 18% in potatoes, respectively.

While potential pest herbivores also increased in strip cropping, their specific predators increased more strongly, resulting in substantially more predators per pest herbivore in strips (+27% to 83%). Strip cropping also enhanced egg predation in potato (+15%) and natural enemy richness (+9% to 17%). Strip cropping thus showed increased biocontrol potential. However, Colorado potato beetle was a notable exception, with threefold higher abundance in strips but no relationship with predator abundance.

Arthropods showed the strongest increase in relatively narrow strips of 3–11 m and strips in conventional systems, but were not affected by the number of crops within the strip‐cropping arrangement.

Synthesis and applications . Our results demonstrate that crop diversification through strip cropping increases arthropod abundances across trophic levels, supporting more functionally diverse and balanced agroecosystems that enhance biocontrol potential.