This poster (presented at the EURAF 2024 conference) presents the initial setup and early outcomes of a walnut-based silvoarable alley cropping system in Flanders, Belgium, demonstrating practical feasibility, ecosystem benefits, and tailored agroforestry practices to support adoption among Flemish farmers.
Farming with trees: a potential ‘win-win’ for sustainable food production and biodiversity?
This downloadable pdf briefly explains the findings of a PhD study investigating the effects of integrating trees into arable land on biodiversity and food production. It provides information on the research questions, the farms involved, pests and weeds, benefits of allowing understoreys to flower, biodiversity and pollinators, and productivity and income. You can access the complete thesis and associated publications via the link.
SIGNAL – Sustainable intensification of agriculture through agroforestry
SIGNAL is part of the funding initiative BonaRes (Soil as a sustainable Resource for the Bioeconomy) which aims to improve soil functions through the development of sustainable management systems and increase understanding of soils, soil processes and soil functions. The project aims to evaluate whether and under which site conditions agroforestry in Germany can be a land use alternative that is ecologically, economically, and socially more sustainable than conventional agriculture. The effects of agroforestry systems on soil ecological properties are being investigated at 4 arable and 2 grassland sites in the north-east of Germany. Project information and various publications can be accessed via the website (mainly in German).
AgroForAdapt
AgroForAdapt is a EU LIFE project promoting agroforestry systems for climate change adaptation of agrarian and forestry sectors in Mediterranean areas. It focuses on two types of agroforestry systems: silvoarable and silvopastoral, with the aim of obtaining benefits resulting from the interactions between the trees and the crops or livestock.
The project aims to evaluate and demonstrate how Mediterranean agroforestry systems are a land use that promotes resilience to drought and forest fires, while improving the provision of multiple ecosystem services i.e. protecting biodiversity, income diversification, profitability, carbon fixation, landscape and socio-cultural values etc. It aims to increase the Mediterranean demonstrative agroforestry area by installing or improving the management of 291 ha of silvoarable systems and 511 ha of silvopastoral systems and inducing the replication of additional 300 and 1,075 ha, respectively. It is focused on developing and applying innovative tools to evaluate ecosystem services and vulnerability to climate change, facilitating the design and prioritisation of areas to install agroforestry systems, and evaluating the long-term performance of demonstrative agroforestry systems.
Various publications and resources will be accessible / can be accessed via the website (some are in Spanish only).
Tree: crop interactions in UK alley cropping agroforestry systems: impacts on crop yield and total productivity
Woodland Trust Research Briefing (authored by Jo Smith and Sally Westaway) reporting on studies carried out within an organic silvoarable alley cropping system in the UK (Wakelyns Agroforestry in Suffolk), where researchers have investigated the impact of trees on crops in the adjacent alleys. The main limiting resource for plants is usually light and some studies have shown that shading from trees has reduced yields in temperate agroforestry systems. The briefing divides the research into sections focusing on cereals and timber trees, fertility-building ley and short rotation coppice willow, cereals and short rotation coppice willow, and total productivity, and includes modelling calculations using an agroforestry model called Yield-SAFE. It can help look at productivity of an agroforestry system over time, by predicting daily growth of the trees and crops in a particular system using local weather, soils and management data.
Wakelyns Agroforestry: Resilience through diversity
Wakelyns, surrounded by a sea of large-scale conventional arable production, is an oasis of trees, alive with bird song and insects. Integrating trees for timber, energy and fruit production into an organic crop rotation, this 22.5 hectare innovative farm was established by the late plant pathologist, Prof. Martin Wolfe, to put into action his theories of agrobiodiversity being the answer to achieving sustainable and resilient agriculture. Marking 30 years of agroforestry at Wakelyns, this recently updated publication celebrates the work of Martin and Ann, fellow researchers from the Organic Research Centre and the wider research and Wakelyns community; as evolved and expanded on by their son David Wolfe and his wife Amanda from 2020. It tells the story of Wakelyns and includes sections on diverse cereal populations, impacts of added diversity on insects and birds, food and energy production, enterprise stacking, ramial woodchip trials, pond restoration and creation, research focused on tree / crop interactions, and sustainability assessments.
Forest gardening in Sweden – sweet chestnut, walnut etc in a forest-like ecosystem?
Short film focusing on the forest garden at farm Rydeholm on the Scandinavian Söderslätt. The main tree crops are sweet chestnut (Castaneva sativa), walnut (Juglans regia), hazelnut (Corylus), korean pine (Pinus koraiensis), almonds (Prunus dulcis), ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) and araucaria (Araucaria araucana). Biodiversity, ecosystem services equivalent to wild, forest-like environments and regeneration, have been set here as equal goals with the food production. The long-term vision is to replace the annual crops (cereals, oilseed rape and sugar beets) with tree crops; sweet chestnut and araucaria (which produces seeds) replacing cereals and hazelnut, and walnut replacing vegetable oil. The film is based on interviews with Anders Lindén, the sixth generation on the farm and one of the pioneers of the Swedish agroforestry movement. Food production has to take the increasing lack of natural resources (water, living soils and fossil energy), into account and agroforestry systems have been shown to be very beneficial in improving the resilience in agricultural systems.
Wakelyns Agroforestry
Wakelyns Agroforestry in Suffolk practices organic farming on one of the longest established and most diverse agroforestry sites in the UK. Different agroforestry systems, based on a maximum use of biodiversity, have been the site of many years of research trials and demonstrations. This 22.5 hectare / 56 acre experimental and innovative agroforestry farm was established by the late plant pathologist and pioneer Professor Martin Wolfe, to put into action his theories of agrobiodiversity being the answer to achieving sustainable and resilient agriculture. Martin pursued his research into agroforestry, co-cropping, crop populations and new crop trials at Wakelyns where the first trees were planted in 1994 and planting continues today.
Wakelyns Agroforestry integrates trees for timber (ash, wild cherry, Italian alder, small-leaved lime, sycamore, oak and hornbeam), energy (hazel, hybrid willow and poplar) and fruit (apple, plum, pear, cherry, quince, peach and apricot) production into an organic crop rotation in four mature silvoarable systems. The next generation of the Wolfe family is evolving Wakelyns as a demonstration centre for agroforestry, while also developing other activities which add to the farming and food production. Via the Wakleyns website, you can access detailed information about what is grown, how it is managed, events, and much more.
Agroforestry: agriculture of the future? The case of Montpellier (part of the SAFE : Silvoarable Agroforestry For Europe project)
Case study produced as part of the SAFE project developed and implemented as a CCA (Climate Change Adaptation) Measure. Several stakeholder organisations from France, The Netherlands, and Greece were involved in the SAFE project. In France, APCA (the national chamber of Agriculture in France) was responsible for the establishment of a network of agroforestry system demonstration plots that is now a very efficient tool for agroforestry extension.
The SAFE project provided models and databases for assessing the profitability of silvoarable systems, and suggested policy guidelines for implementing agroforestry. It developed biophysical and socio-economic tools to inform farmers and policy-makers of the potential for silvoarable agroforestry to contribute to the integrated and sustainable development of European rural areas.
In Montpellier, the agroforestry scheme has been implemented for 20 years. The agroforestry scheme adopted in Montpellier within the SAFE project is a combination of walnut trees and wheat cultivation. A French national scheme for planting half a million hectares of agroforestry during the next 25 years is expected to be based on results obtained by INRA (Institut Nantional de la Recherche Agronomique) at Montpellier.
The case study provides information on challenges, objectives and benefits.