Crop rotational diversity improves maize yields and resilience in intensive cropping systems

Increasing plant diversity through crop rotations has historically shown potential for yield and more recently environmental benefits. However, we lack integrated knowledge of how intensive cropping systems could benefit from crop rotational diversity under more a variable climate at a scale relevant to policy. Here, based on extensive multilevel regression and probability analyses of maize yield data from 11 long-term experiments, we show that more diverse crop rotations increase maize yields across all growing conditions and contribute to reducing farmers’ risk of crop failure under unfavorable weather conditions, including extreme weather events, such as drought.