To adress the issue of diversifying the cropping systems in shallow soils to improve their sustainability, we developped, wthin the frame of the French project 'Syppre' and of the European project DiverIMPACTS, an approach combining (i) the support to farmers in transition in their farm and (ii) on-station experiment of an innovative cropping system co-designed with local advisors and farmers. The aim of this work was to describe the approach used, the cropping systems implemented, their performances and discuss the strengths, weaknesses and obstacles to cropping system diversification in shallow soils.