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Integrating trees for timber, energy and fruit production into an organic crop rotation, Wakelyns (a 22.5-hectare innovative farm) was established by the late plant pathologist Professor Martin Wolfe to put into action his theories of agrobiodiversity being the answer to achieving sustainable and resilient agriculture. The farm has been the focus of research into organic crop production and agroforestry for over 20 years and continues to be a source of inspiration for those practicing or studying agroforestry. Some of the key theories investigated at Wakelyns and the evidence produced by Martin and researchers from the Organic Research Centre are summarised in this publication, which is invaluable to any farmer or land manager with an interest in carrying out agroforestry on their land.

Tradução de folha informativa do projeto AFINET - Sebes geridas em talhadia: caso-estudo duma conversão duma sebe destruída numa cultura rentável de lenha. A exploração tem 162 hectares de pecuária, com um encabeçamento baixo. Incluí cerca de 19 km de sebes, geridas em talhadia com uma rotação de 15 a 20 anos, exceto as sebes ao longo de estradas que são podadas intensivamente anualmente. A exploração possui um pequeno empreendimento de produção de lenha vendendo cerca de 175 t de toros por ano proveniente das sebes. A talhadia das sebes produz toros, os materiais mais pequenos (utilizados na exploração ou vendidos a um preço reduzido) e as sobras são tratadas num branch logger e vendidas como aparas. Todos os tipos de lenha são armazenados e tapados durante 10 meses para reduzir o seu conteúdo em humidade. Em 2017, o agricultor cortou a sebe em talhadia, que era constituída por uma mistura de espécies, com 220 m de comprimento,6,5m de altura, 15 anos de idade, e situava-se num camalhão antigo. O corte foi feito com motosserra, o material foi processado em slacher e branch logger. Os 220 m de sebe cortada produziram 21,41 toneladas de material lenhoso capaz de ser vendido ou utilizado.

Kluczową zaletą współpracy wielu partnerów jest połączenie ich wiedzy i umiejętności, co pozwala w rezultacie na stworzenie systemu o większej odporności społecznej i ekonomicznej – każdy zapewnia rynek zbytu dla swoich produktów, a dzięki wzajemnej współpracy partnerzy mogą uzyskać dostęp do nowych rynków; każdy z nich ma możliwość powiększenia swojego zasięgu na rynku. - A key benefit of multiple partners is that combining different people's skills and expertise results is a system that is more socially and economically resilient - everyone brings their own markets for their own crop and by working together can access different markets; everyone has the potential to grow their market reach. Cooperation between all stakeholders and open communication right from the start and throughout the planning process are also key to making this model work.

Studium przypadku zaprezentowane powyżej pokazuje, że zmiana sposobu zarządzania żywopłotami jest opłacalna ekonomicznie. Istnieje szeroki zakres metod gospodarowania, które można zastosować w większości gospodarstw. Co więcej, istnieje możliwość otrzymania wsparcia finansowego z programów środowiskowych. Zmiana sposobu postrzegania żywopłotów przez rolnika: jako dodatkowe źródło dochodu, a nie tylko kosztowny i pracochłonny element gospodarstwa. Umożliwienie wegetatywnego odrastania pozwoli odnowić drzewostan dzięki młodym drzewom i krzewom odbudowującym strukturę żywopłotu. - Firewood production from hedge coppicing can be economically viable. There are a range of machinery options for coppicing to suit most farms. In addition, support may be available from environmental stewardship payments. Changing farmer's perception of hedges so they are viewed as a useful resource rather than a cost gives hedges a securer future. Coppicing can rejuvenate hedges allowing new young growth at the base of the hedge, restoring the structural integrity of old hedges.

Poster presented at the 4th World Agroforestry Congress in Montpellier on 20-22 May 2019. This poster pays tribute to Professor Martin Wolfe, who passed away in early 2019. Martin was a pioneer in plant breeding and agroforestry, and established a highly innovative, integrated and organic agroforestry farm in Suffolk, eastern England.Based on his experiences in plant pathology, Martin firmly believed that the future of sustainable agriculture was routed in Darwinian evolutionary processes, where adaptation to the agricultural abiotic and biotic environment leads to increases in overall productivity and resilience1. By moving away from the industrialised monoculture approach towards polycultures with major increases both within and among crops, trees and livestock, Martin's work produced evidence, and practical experience, of the overall productivity, biodiversity and environmental gains when modern knowledge and techniques in ecology and genetics are applied at all levels.

Tradução de folha informativa do projeto AFINET - A plantação de árvores em campos aráveis ou hortas é muitas vezes associada à redução da área utilizada na produção da cultura anual. Dependendo do desenho do sistema agroflorestal, das espécies de árvores, da sua idade e da disposição, esta área (localizada por baixo das copas e entre as árvores) pode atingir 25% da área cultivada numa monocultura agrícola. Caso esta área não seja utilizada, o seu retorno financeiro fica adiado até à entrada em produção da árvore, o que pode ocorrer muitos anos após a plantação no caso de fruteiras ou sistemas de talhadia de curta rotação.

Wprowadzenie upraw w strefie podokapowej drzew może zapewnić przychód do czasu, gdy drzewa osiągną dojrzałość produkcyjną. Uprawy te mogą zapewnić zwrot kosztów sadzenia drzew w ciągu dwóch-trzech lat, jeżeli znajdziemy rynek zbytu dla nowego produktu. Wprowadzenie nowych upraw poszerzy ofertę produktów na rynku, a także zwiększy ogólną produktywność danego systemu rolno-leśnego.

Sadzenie drzew na polach uprawnych czy warzywnych oznacza wyłączenie tego obszaru z rocznej produkcji; w zależności od projektu systemu, może on obejmować do 20% obszaru uprawnego. W wielu systemach rolno-leśnych obszar pomiędzy drzewami i pod koroną drzew nie jest użytkowany ani zarządzany, co może powodować problemy z zachwaszczeniem. Możliwym rozwiązaniem jest zasadzenie alternatywnych roślin uprawnych w rzędach drzew w celu zapewnienia przychodu w latach tuż po posadzeniu drzew lub dłużej, jeśli użyte zostaną gatunki odporne na zacienienie.Poza ogólnym wzrostem produktywności, dodatkową korzyść stanowi zróżnicowanie uzyskanych produktów.

Tradução de leaflet do projeto AGFORWARD - As árvores são benéficas para o bem-estar das galinhas. Os antepassados das galinhas domésticas empoleiravam-se em árvores, e as galinhas são mais felizes e utilizam mais recursos para se alimentarem na presença de árvores. No entanto, o problema de incluir árvores na área de dispersão das galinhas é a falta de vegetação sob o seu coberto, devido à sombra e à competição das árvores. Além disso, fora do coberto as herbáceas existentes podem ser não palatáveis. A regulamentação europeia para a criação de galinhas em modo de produção biológico e ao ar livre estabelece que a área ao ar livre deve estar, na sua maioria, coberta de vegetação. Assim, a instalação e manutenção de uma pastagem sob o coberto arbóreo tem várias vantagens: protege o solo, fornece uma alternativa alimentar às aves e aumenta a biodiversidade.

As a deliverable of the EU FP7 AGFORWARD project Jo Smith and colleagues at the Organic Research Centre in the UK summarised research carried out at a UK silvoarable farm in this "Lessons Learnt" report. The report focuses on a silvoarable system at Tolhurst Organics in Berkshire, where rows of eight tree species (with an inter-row width of 20 m) were planted in March 2015 within an area used for organic vegetable production. The trees established well with only a 5% failure rate, but tree protection was needed to minimise deer damage. A focus of the study was on the biodiversity related to the tree rows, and six types of vegetation cover were examined including a long-term beetle bank, natural regeneration, and four types of legume mixtures. In the first year, the long term beetle bank had the highest number of floral species but by the second year many of the treatments had similar levels of floral species. In total, 75 different plant species were recorded over the three-year period. The report also examines the effect on ground invertebrates and earthworms. The last part of the report looks at the costs of establishing the tree rows and the opportunities for including marketable crops within the tree rows.

Technical factsheet from teh FACCE Surplus project SustainFARM describing an agroforestry system in the UK that produces woodchip from short rotation coppice integrated with organic arable production.

Subsidiary cropping and mulch systems as well as conservation tillage may induce multiple positive agro-ecological effects, increasing resilience and yield stability of cash cropping in organic farming systems. As this may also implicitly affect production economics and risk potential, the paper at hand evaluates two year crop-rotations from empiric field data, considering costs and revenues of production as well as yield effects based on stochastic risk simulation. Absolute profitability as well as risk potential substantially varies between cropping systems and locations and does not necessarily display a definite preference of conventional/reduced tillage or subsidiary cropping systems. However, a temporal expansion of the period under observation considering long-term effects of soil fertility enhancing management practices may illustrate their risk-reducing potential as well as the necessity to handle them as long-term investments with instant expenses and subsequent economic returns.

The technical guide explains the challenges that arable farmers face in control of creeping thistle, a persistent perennial weed. The guide provides detailed recommendations, how to prevent thistles from establishing in crops, how to limit spreading after first plants have established, and how to proceed in case of extensive spread of thistles using mechanical control measures and intensive greening.