Miroslav Dumbrovský and Veronika Sobotková from the Institute of Landscape Water Management FAST BUT developed a methodical procedure for the correct design and implementation of strip cropping. The procedure has been implemented in agricultural subsidy and control policies for crop rotation.

Throughout 2024, a series of meetings and working sessions were held with government representatives in search of a suitable solution to implement the issue of strip cropping management in accordance with the rules of agricultural management within the framework of the DZES (Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition of Soils) standards. Without the correct integration of belt crop rotation technology into farming rules and subsidy policy, this technology could not be implemented on a larger scale in the future. It was therefore decided last year that strip cropping would be one of the possible ecosystems for subsidy-supported measures on agricultural land. At the beginning of this year, Government Regulation No. 83/2023 was amended and the text of the amendment was approved by the Government on 12 March 2025. The amendment includes a new provision of Section 24c, which sets out the conditions for granting ecopayments to support crop rotation.

All the negotiations and development of the methodological procedure for the correct design and implementation of strip cropping management were carried out with the participation of a wider team outside of the BUT. This is the team working on the TAČR project SS06010290 - Belt crop rotation as an adaptation measure to optimise water management in the landscape. The team consists of experts from the Research Institute of Land Reclamation and Soil Protection, v. v. i.; Palacký University in Olomouc and Rostěnice, a.s.

The project administration process was also designed in cooperation with the State Land Office. The evaluation of already implemented strip cropping systems on model sites was carried out. On the basis of these activities, a Methodological Procedure for the determination of basic parameters for the design and implementation of belt crop rotation and a related plug-in module in the QGIS environment were developed to automate the design of the PSP system and checks for compliance with the technical parameters specified in the Methodological Procedure.

Dumbrovsky's team has been working on the strip cropping management method for a long time. The aim is to increase landscape retention and biodiversity and to reduce soil erosion and the effects of climate change. The scientists are verifying their findings in practice directly in the fields; we wrote about the project in more detail in an article last year.