On Wednesday (2nd October), The European Parliament Budgets Committee pledged €1 million (£844,000) to a pilot project aiming to improve uptake of a sustainable farming system, which claims to provide tangible benefits for farmers and the environment.

Under the scheme, Towards an integrated European agroforestry sector, new European initiatives will be launched aimed at driving genuine ownership of agroforestry projects by farmers.

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Agroforestry combines trees with crops or livestock to create reduced-input, biologically diverse and sustainable farm systems. Although the approach is thousands of years old, recent improvements in scientific understanding have augmented the traditional production system, and shown how it can boost productivity whilst providing a range of co-benefits. Agroforestry is often closely linked with the broader field of agroecology.

Commenting on Wednesday, Alain Canet, President of the French Agroforestry Association, said, "The European Parliament has given new momentum to this innovative production system. Thanks to the pilot project, agroforestry, which is one of the greening elements of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), will not remain unheeded."

The EU pilot project, which gained funding last week, will provide answers to the overall lack of information and support for farmers with regard to the various options of agroforestry applications. Research in the area has so far been relatively limited, and in the UK the practice has almost disappeared; France has led state-funded research into agroecology, and findings have been promising, though they show the approach is initially expensive for farmers, which has slowed wider uptake.

Nevertheless, according to the country's agroforestry research institute (Agroof), around 3,000 hectares are being converted to agroforestry each year in France, and state agricultural research body INRA secured European Commission recognition for agroforestry systems in the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) for the first time in 2006. Canet and his fellow agroforestry practitioners hope that this, combined with the removal of barriers under the greening element of CAP reforms, will help to drive uptake in the next CAP period.

In 2011, reporting to the UN on the huge potential of agroecology, the field from which the science of agroforestry takes its theoretical cues, lawyer and special rapporteur on the right to food Olivier de Schutter, spoke explicitly about the need for public sector funding of such agroecological approaches. He said, "Agroecology is a knowledge-intensive approach. It requires public policies supporting agricultural research and participative extension services. States and donors have a key role to play here.

"Private companies will not invest time and money in practices that cannot be rewarded by patents and which don’t open markets for chemical products or improved seeds," de Schutter added.

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 On Thursday, Euraf (the European Agroforestry federation) said the grant would be used to raise awareness in the agricultural world about the multiple benefits of agroforestry, improve the research base for agroforestry and improve direct involvement from farmers, to advance agroforestry practices and facilitate knowledge sharing.

The funding project is still subject to the final EU Parliament plenary vote on the Bloc's post-2014 budget. After voting later this month, the Commission will be responsible for deciding how money is allocated to projects in the 28 member states.

Alain Canet said the agroforestry pilot project had received cross-party support from parliamentarians.