Agroforesterie en système silvoarable au Royaume-Uni
Description du système
Les systèmes silvoarables sont assez rares au Royaume-Uni. Le peu de systèmes existants sont essentiellement basés sur un système d’allées dont les bandes sont cultivées. La composante arborée consiste soit en une production de fruitiers (pommes, poires et prunes), de bois d’œuvre, ou de taillis pour une production de bois énergie.
Première réunion des intervenants
Le 18 novembre 2014, un atelier proposé aux intervenants et basé sur les sytèmes silvoarables en agroforesterie au Royaume-Uni a eu lieu a Wakelyns Agroforestry dans le Suffolk. Neuf intervenants dont sept agriculteurs étaient présents. Wakelyns Agroforestry est un site de recherche sur les sytèmes silvoarables biologiques créé en 1994 sur 22,5 ha à la frontière entre le Suffolk et le Norfolk à l’est de l’Angleterre (52.4°N, 1.4°E). Il associe des noisetiers et des saules à vocation énéergétique, et un mélange d’arbres forestiers et fruitiers, avec des céréales, des pommes de terre, des cultures légumières et la construction de la fertilisation par des rotations dans les allées cultivées. A l’issue de l’atelier, les participants ont identifié de possibles thèmes de recherche pour le futur : quel pourrait être le rôle de l’agroforesterie dans la réduction des dommages causés par les parasites, donc dans la réduction de l’utilisation des pesticides, et du choix des espèces d’arbres.
Si vous souhaitez en en savoir plus à propos de l’activité de ce groupe, merci de contacter le Dr Jo Smith
Télécharger le premier rapport du groupe de travail
An initial report was provided in November 2014.
Télécharger le rapport initial du protocole R&D
Two protocols were produced in April and June 2015.
The first protocol focuses on the testing of cereal mixtures and the second focuses on understorey management of the tree rows.
Télécharger la description du système
Two system description reports were produced in April 2016.
The first system report focuses on the testing of cereal mixtures and the second focuses on the understorey management of tree rows.
Lessons learnt
Jo Smith and colleagues at the Organic Research Centre in the UK have produced two “Lessons Learnt” reports on silvoarable systems in the UK.
The first report focuses on research at Wakelyns Agroforestry in Suffolk. Although willow has been widely promoted in the UK, their research shows that under the relatively dry conditions in Suffolk, the biomass and bio-energy yields of hazel can be as high as that for willow. The effect of lines of SRC on spring oats, barley, and wheat yields were examined within a long-term programme investigating the effects of an evolutionary plant breeding approach. With the possible exception of the oats, the yield of each crop declined with greater proximity to uncoppiced tree rows. The last part of the report demonstrates how the Yield-SAFE model can be used to describe the biomass production of crops and willow over time in different configurations.
The second report focuses on a silvoarable system at Tolhurst Organics in Berkshire, where rows of eight tree species (with an inter-row width of 20 m) were planted in March 2015 within an area used for organic vegetable production. The trees established well with only a 5% failure rate, but tree protection was needed to minimise deer damage. A focus of the study was on the biodiversity related to the tree rows, and six types of vegetation cover were examined including a long-term beetle bank, natural regeneration, and four types of legume mixtures. In the first year, the long term beetle bank had the highest number of floral species but by the second year many of the treatments had similar levels of floral species. In total, 75 different plant species were recorded over the three-year period. The report also examines the effect on ground invertebrates and earthworms. The last part of the report looks at the costs of establishing the tree rows and the opportunities for including marketable crops within the tree rows.