Introductory Chapter: Plant Competition in Multiple Cropping Systems beyond Conceptual Knowledge

In the coming years, farmers will face difficult challenges throughout the world in the context of climate change, water scarcity and environmental issues caused by conventional agricultural technologies. An effective management of natural resources can be encouraged by orienting the common agricultural practices towards the functional biodiversity concept in designing and implementing sustainable and eco-friendly cropping systems. It is well established that the enhancement of biodiversity facilitates and ameliorates the natural regulatory mechanisms of pests, insects and weeds [1].