AGFORWARD

Descrizione del sistema

I sistemi silvoarabili sono attualmente rari nel Regno Unito. I pochi sistemi esistenti sono generalmente composti da filari di alberi alternati a seminativi. Le specie arbustive impiegate sono alberi da frutta (mele, pere e prugne), alberi ad alto fusto o alberi cedui per la produzione di combustibili lignei.

Meeting iniziale con gli stakeholders

Il 18 novembre 2014, si è tenuto presso Wakelyns Agroforestry a Suffolk, un workshop sulle pratiche agroforestali esistenti nel Regno Unito. Al meeting hanno aderito 9 partecipanti tra cui sette produttori di seminativi. Wakelyns Agroforestry è un sito di ricerca sui sistemi agroforestali a coltivazione  biologica che è stato istituito nel 1994 su 22,5 ha, al confine tra Suffolk e Norfolk nell’Inghilterra orientale (52,4 ° N, 1.4 ° E). Il sistema comprende noccioli e salici cedui ed un sistema misto di alberi per la produzione di legname e di alberi da frutta, con cereali, patate, verdure di campo e trifoglio,  in rotazione. Al termine del workshop, i partecipanti hanno individuato possibili temi per la ricerca quali la selezione di adeguate specie arbore, e lo studio sulla riduzione dei danni da patogeni e, quindi, sul minor uso di pesticidi.  

Per maggiori informazioni sull’attività del gruppo di ricerca si prega di contattare Dr Jo Smith jo.s@organicresearchcentre.com

Download the initial stakeholder report

An initial report was provided in November 2014.

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.

Download the system description

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.