A new Woodland Trust-funded project will see three students investigate the relationship between trees and the farmed environment.

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Tim Saunders, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, will be conducting the research at Harper Adams University. He will study the potential value of trees to farm businesses, with the participation of three separate enterprises from across the country.

The three participating businesses are now planting new trees as part of the study.

Although a number of research agencies around the world have looked into the benefits and different uses of trees in agricultural environments, particularly in France and the United States, often the cost of tree-planting and certain regulatory barriers have held back expansion.  

Mike Townsend, Senior Adviser for the Woodland Trust, commented on Monday, "We've always believed that trees are hugely beneficial to farmers, supporting sustainable production, helping protect crops and livestock, reducing loss of soil, and reducing the risk of flooding.

"Through this new course, which we're delighted to be sponsoring, Tim will be able to do invaluable research and add extra weight to our offer to farmers who want to plant trees."

Tim Saunders is undertaking the work following the completion of an undergraduate degree in ecology and environmental biology, and a postgraduate degree in environmental technology, both at Imperial College, London. Supervising the project at Harper Adams is Senior Lecturer and Chartered Forester, Jim Waterson. He said, "We hope that the work that Tim and future students complete will help farmers to understand how trees can contribute to their businesses and the potential value of that contribution."

Last week, the EU Parliament announced that €1 million (£844,000) will go towards developing the agroforestry research in the EU under the next budget period.

Practitioners in Europe's agroforestry organisations said they hope the increasing attention being paid to the approach, combined with the new EU funding injection will drive uptake. Separate barriers previously encountered by those wishing to branch out into agroforestry have also been removed under the reformed Common Agricultural Policy.

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 more traditional production systems, and shown how agroforestry can boost productivity whilst providing a range of co-benefits.