Reduced grazing and changes in the area of agroforestry in Europe

Rubio-Delgado, Judit; Schnabel, Susanne; Burgess, Paul J.; Burbi, Sara

doi:10.3389/fenvs.2023.1258697

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The European Commission (2013) de ne agroforestry as a land use system in which trees are grown in combination with agriculture on the same land. Silvopasture, the combination of trees with grazing animals, is the main agroforestry system in Europe, whilst silvoarable, the integration of trees with arable crops, is present on much smaller areas (den Herder et al, 2017;Rubio-Delgado et al, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicted yield and soil organic carbon changes in grassland, arable, woodland, and agroforestry systems under climate change in a cool temperate Atlantic climate

Giannitsopoulos,

Burgess,

Graves

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study predicts the effects of climate change on crop yields, timber volumes and soil organic carbon in grassland, arable, ash woodland, poplar plantation, and silvopastoral and silvoarable systems in Northern Ireland. We modified a version of the biophysical Yield-SAFE agroforestry model that includes a RothC soil carbon module and also the effect of atmospheric CO2 fertilisation. The model was calibrated using existing field measurements and weather data from 1989 to 2021. The effect of two future climate scenarios were modelled, based on two representative concentration pathways (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) for 2020–2060 and 2060–2100. The study revealed that the impact of future climate scenarios on grass and arable yields, and tree growth were positive with the effect of CO2 fertilisation more than offsetting a generally negative effect of increased temperatures and drought stress on yields. The predicted land equivalent ratio (LER) remained relatively constant between the baseline and the future climate scenarios for the silvopastoral system (1.08 to 1.11). The corresponding values for the silvoarable system were 0.87–0.92 based on arable and timber yields alone, or 1.11–1.17 if grass yields were included. In the silvopastoral system, but not the silvoarable system, the model suggested that climate change would benefit tree growth relative to the understorey crop. Greater losses of soil organic carbon were predicted under barley-only (1.02–1.18 t C ha− 1 yr− 1) than grassland (0.48–0.55 t C ha− 1 yr− 1), with relatively small differences between the baseline and climate scenarios. However, the analysis indicated that these losses could be mitigated by planting trees, but this effect was not immediate as soil organic matter would continue to decline for the first 10 years until the trees were well-established. The model was also used to examine the effect of different tree densities on the trade-offs between timber volume and understorey crop yields.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicted yield and soil organic carbon changes in grassland, arable, woodland, and agroforestry systems under climate change in a cool temperate Atlantic climate

Giannitsopoulos,

Burgess,

Graves

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

What challenges impede the adoption of agroforestry practices? A global perspective through a systematic literature review

Tranchina,

Reubens,

Frey

et al. 2024

Agroforest Syst

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite the extensive amount of evidence in the literature regarding the benefits of agroforestry systems including carbon sequestration, soil erosion reduction, climate change resilience, biodiversity conservation and other ecosystem services, the adoption of agroforestry practices presents several barriers for farmers and other stakeholders, thus requiring comprehensive examination from the scientific community. We performed a systematic literature review following the methodology described in the PRISMA framework, to provide a novel comprehensive and systematic overview of what is present in the literature regarding the obstacles stakeholders perceive with regards to agroforestry adoption, gathered through participatory research methods, which are methodologies that engage stakeholders in the research process. In this work, we highlighted and categorized 31 obstacles that stakeholders around the globe perceive according to the examined literature (n = 90) with regards to agroforestry adoption, pertaining to i) technical-agronomic, ii) socio-economic and iii) policy-legislative aspects. We produced a consultable database of the examined literature presenting the extracted and categorized data including 1) Region of interest; 2) Investigated agroforestry system; 3) Methodologies utilized in the papers; 4) Number, gender ratio and type of stakeholders; 5) Main relevant obstacles found in the paper. We highlighted the five most frequently encountered issues i) the availability or quality of knowledge or experience on technical and agronomic matters, or knowledge diffusion necessary to implement or maintain agroforestry systems ii) the perceived socio-economic issue related to the market, marketing of agroforestry products, supply chain or jobs in agroforestry; iii) issues related to the amount of labor or time necessary to implement or maintain agroforestry systems; iv) issues related to the upfront economic investment necessary to establish an agroforestry system and availability of capital; and v) issues related to the availability of technical support necessary to implement or maintain agroforestry systems.

show abstract

Policies for agroforestry, a narrative review of four ‘continental’ regions: EU, India, Brazil, and the United States

Venn,

Montero-de-Oliveira,

Buratti-Donham

et al. 2024

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Agroforestry is receiving renewed interest due to its highly diversified, multifunctional nature. With a long history and roots in many indigenous farming systems, agroforestry offers a ‘win-win’ for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, on-farm profitability, resilience, and social wellbeing. However, the re-integration of trees on farms goes against the previous decades’ push for de-mixing, intensifying, and simplifying production methods, and farmer uptake remains low. As understanding and support for more integrated, complex farming systems builds, an enabling policy landscape is needed. This narrative policy review considers policies for agroforestry across four ‘continental’ regions: the EU, India, Brazil, and the United States. Using an agroecological framework, we explore the content, development, objectives, and alignment of both direct and indirect policies to provide insight into: how policies for agroforestry are currently framed; their development process; and, whether over-lapping and interconnected policy objectives are included. We find that policies for agroforestry are increasing gradually, but are typically confined to an agronomic understanding, with limited inclusion of the socio-political aspects of food and farming. Except in Brazil, policies appear to be narrow in scope, with few stakeholders included in their development. Policies do not challenge the status quo of the dominant corporate agri-food system and appear to miss the transformative potential of agroforestry. We recommend: greater coordination of policy instruments to achieve co-benefits; focused integration of agricultural and climate policies; greater inclusion of diverse stakeholders in policy development; and a widening of agroforestry systems’ objectives, both in policy and practice.

show abstract

Reduced grazing and changes in the area of agroforestry in Europe

Cited by 4 publications

References 48 publications

Predicted yield and soil organic carbon changes in grassland, arable, woodland, and agroforestry systems under climate change in a cool temperate Atlantic climate

Predicted yield and soil organic carbon changes in grassland, arable, woodland, and agroforestry systems under climate change in a cool temperate Atlantic climate

What challenges impede the adoption of agroforestry practices? A global perspective through a systematic literature review

Policies for agroforestry, a narrative review of four ‘continental’ regions: EU, India, Brazil, and the United States

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About