More resilient agriculture with trees in the fields

The benefits of agroforestry are not just economic – the farmer has multiple sources of income, which spreads the risk – but also ecological. A row of trees increases biodiversity, retains water and improves the soil. Trees can also reduce damage from wind. How farmers can make smart choices from all these options is at the heart of Wageningen’s research in AGROMIX.

Wageningen University & Research (WUR) is one of the 28 partners involved in the project. Daniël de Jong, who works at Wageningen Plant Research, is the project manager for the Dutch contribution. De Jong: “Modern agriculture is geared to uniformity but our goal is diversity. To achieve this, we’re assessing the opportunities and issues associated with various alternative approaches. That will help farmers figure out the implications that alternatives like these would have for them.” Tools such as serious games are an accessible way of giving farmers a clear understanding of the options. De Jong: “Wageningen is currently heading the development of one game in which farmers will be able to input their farm’s details and see what a switch to agroforestry would cost them and what gains they would get from it. The game is obviously a huge simplification of the real world; it is intended as inspiration, not as a personalised recommendation for that farm.”

WUR is supervising the twelve pilots in the various European countries. A co-design process is used in which all stakeholders – farmers, companies, local residents, researchers and policymakers – discuss potential solutions in joint design sessions. De Jong: “In France, we have a pilot project with a pig farmer who would normally keep his pigs permanently in the shed, but now he wants them to graze in the fields. He also wants to feed them with fodder he gets from his trees. By producing his own feed for his pigs, he will be less dependent on feed such as soya that has to travel long distances. The trees are in his meadows and provide the pigs with shadow as well as fodder.”

This specific pilot involves investigating which parts of the trees are suitable for use as animal feed. Business models are also being studied: how can the farmer market the pork? Is a special label for grass-fed or tree-fed pigs an option? After all, the meat needs to fetch a higher price to make up for the increased costs of this more extensive form of livestock farming. De Jong: “I expect farmers, businesspeople, researchers, policymakers and perhaps consumers too to jointly consider the options.”

A pilot has also started in South Limburg in the Netherlands and De Jong is involved in that too. The assignment is to figure out how to lay out the landscape in a way that makes it climate-proof. “The municipality of Voerendaal has a problem with extreme downpours and droughts. The terrain is hilly, so after a heavy rainfall the streets are full of mud that washes off the fields. The municipality wants to prevent that. It also wants an attractive, diverse rolling landscape, which is not necessarily what you get with monotonous potato fields. But they don’t want to drive out the farmers either.” One possibility is reviving a traditional form of Limburg agroforestry: ridges planted with herbs, bushes with berries and trees such as oak and walnut. Many of these ridges were lost due to land consolidation and the increase in scale. That is a pity because they stopped the water from flowing down the hillside so rapidly, while the roots of the trees and bushes helped retain the water in the soil. Moreover, the ridges were good for biodiversity and helped keep pests under control thanks to all the insects and birds living there. A downside is that farmers had to make detours with their tractors, so not all farmers are keen on seeing a return of the traditional ridges.

It is difficult to get everyone in line when so many parties are involved in the pilot – farmers, the water board and the provincial authority for example. De Jong: “Solutions thought up at a desk aren’t enough in themselves to bring about change. For that you need people who have the power and the drive to set the change in motion – for example, a farmer respected by everyone in the village.”