Cranfield University will host an international agroforestry conference in 2017, looking into the concept which has gained ground in Europe in recent years.

Agroforestry - or returning trees to farmed landscapes - has gained popularity in recent years; France’s state agricultural research institute (l’INRA) has committed  to researching agroforestry, and has developed a number of monitor farms, mostly in the South-East of France.

In the UK, a number of landowners and regional groups have looked into returning trees and shrubs to farmland (though currently trees are returning to farmed land as a means of preventing flooding or run-off prevention, rather than as additional cropping). In Wales, Bangor University is currently measuring the effectiveness of trees and shelter belts to protect flocks from adverse weather using lifelike electric models of sheep. Commenting on the research, PhD student Pip Jones said, “Tree shelter from chilling wind could save energy and provide a real efficiency boost in the conversion of energy eaten to actual growth and health in our young livestock.”

Substantial set up costs and limited access to new developments in the area have so far prevented agroforestry from moving into the mainstream. However, a recent review for the Land Use Policy Group found that agroforestry is one of the systems with the greatest potential for the ‘sustainable intensification’ of farming and the organisers of next year’s conference aim to raise the profile of agroforestry, by looking at the practice with farmers, foresters and landowners.
 
When the conference was announced last week, Tom MacMillan, Director of Innovation at the Soil Association commented, “Agroforestry is exciting because of its potential to lift productivity at the same time as benefitting the climate and wildlife. Two acres that combine trees and farming will produce more than an acre of each side by side, because the trees use sunlight, water and nutrients at different heights and depths. You get all sorts – timber, fruit, nuts, combined with arable or pasture. It’s intercropping but supersized.”
 
The conference will showcase some of the UK’s leading agroforestry systems and look at the main steps and questions faced in getting them off the ground. It will look particularly at how farmers can find new markets from trees, whether for fruit, nuts or timber, or for ‘public goods’ like flood protection or wildlife.
 
Stephen Briggs of Whitehall Farm, a Cambridgeshire farm which is practising agroforestry, said, “Since integrating apple trees in rows within my arable rotation of wheat, barley, clover and vegetables, my farm has established the largest agroforestry system in the UK. 8% of the land area has a tree crop on it with 92% of land remaining in arable production. The three-dimensional agroforestry combination provides an annual and longer term economic return from both components by utilising more space above and below ground, better captures resources such as sunlight, nutrients and water, protects soil and enhances biodiversity. What’s not to like?”
 
The event will be organised a partnership of the Soil Association, Woodland Trust and the Royal Forestry Society, and will take place on 22 June 2017. Visit www.soilassociation.org/agroforestry/ for tickets or more information.

Some of the topics that will be covered at the conference include:
 

• The practical benefits of agroforestry
• Designing an agroforestry system
• Finding suitable markets for tree crops
• Securing permission from landlords
• Public payments for ecosystem services