Agroforestry Focus: Economic Performance

The AGROMIX project focuses on bringing together farmers, researchers and policymakers to explore agroecological solutions for more resilient land use in Europe, developing tools to implement these practices – with a focus on agroforestry and mixed farming. It provides information from previous projects, ongoing trial sites and experiences of farmers and land managers, to identify best options for transitioning towards these systems in each region of Europe.

It is involved in analysing current agricultural value chains, identifying obstacles to innovation in different agro-climatic and socio-economic contexts, and using these findings to present practical solutions to transition towards alternative land use systems.

From its network of 83 agricultural study sites, 12 pilot projects based in three agro-climatic zones (Atlantic, Continental, Mediterranean) are developing, testing and improving models and user-friendly tools to assist land managers in implementing and monitoring climate-resilient land use based on mixed farming and agroforestry principles. Results will be used to develop models and transition scenarios adapted to the climates of each agro-climatic region, presenting policy options for different scales and time frames.

On the website you can find information on the pilot projects and trial sites, scientific publications, videos, and a knowledge hub sharing various useful resources.

This project was led by the University of Copenhagen, with partners in Germany, Spain, Italy, Romania, Poland and the UK – ORC (Organic Research Centre). Via the project website you can access information on case studies, reports, and videos. It also produced the SustainFARM Public Goods Tool – a sustainability assessment for farms that combine food and non-food production.

The main objective was to enhance the agronomic, environmental and economic performance of integrated food and non-food production systems (IFNS) – in which trees, crops and livestock components are integrated in different ways at different scales and include traditional and innovative agroforestry – by optimising productivity and valorising woody components, residual wastes and co-products.

It adopted an innovative case-study approach, whereby locally relevant IFNS worked in close collaboration with the local end-users of the technology such as farmers, advisory services and policy makers. They co-generated technology, relevant at the local scale, to address productivity issues and enhancing valorisation of unused, residual and co-products. They investigated the economic and environmental performance of a range of IFNS across several agri-climatic zones of Europe and worked on designing innovative, resilient and climate-smart IFNS systems. Different means of valorising residual and co-products (woody components and residual wet olive cake etc.) and for multiple uses (bedding material, compost, bioenergy etc.) were demonstrated at facilities in UK and Italy and the knowledge generated shared through the stakeholder platforms.

ORC led work on developing a list of agronomic, environmental and economic indicators to evaluate the sustainability of IFNS. They contributed to the network of IFNS study sites and provided data on: a) Traditional boundary hedgerows with livestock; b) an innovative alley cropping silvopastoral system with short rotation coppice and livestock; c) traditional boundary hedgerows with arable and vegetable crops; d) and an innovative alley cropping silvoarable system with arable and vegetable crops. Project outputs (technical guides, a public goods tool and videos), can all be accessed via the ORC project page. The public goods tool has been updated beyond this project – see seperate entry