Holistic agroforestry system in practice. Just an idea or is there a living model ?

Presentation

In the last decades there has been a tendency to classify agroforestry systems to help focus on particular aspects of different practices with specific objectives. However, in practice, the management of land use at farm scale has a wide range of options and decisions to be made at operational level following a certain strategy. Farmers can adopt certain agroforestry practices to suit and enhance their business as usual. What if agroforestry is considered the central key for the farming system and the business as usual is built under the “agroforestry concept umbrella” to produce different farming activities? We introduce a holistic agroforestry business model running in practice in Herdade do Freixo do Meio (HFM), about 100 km east of Lisbon. This farm has 423 ha running a business which strategy is based on sustainability concepts. There are three pillars in the current sustainable management model: Deepening, Widening and Repositioning. The first one focus on a) diversification of income, b) organic agriculture, c) extensive production practices, d) autochthonous species and their certification, e) on-farm added value to products. The Widening strategy focus on f) recreational and environmental education, g) enabling visiting activities, h) organizing thematic pathways, i) eco-camping, j) catering and k) environmental services. The Repositioning strategy focus on l) energy production, m) organizing on-farm events and n) host “your nursery” projects (Auriault 2012). The farm has the social responsibility of employing about 20 local people. The cornerstone in the management strategy is the improvement of the soil quality as this is considered vital to surrounding around 300 satellite products and services coming from the farm. Trees under the Montado agroforestry system are vital in the management as they provide services such as improvement of soil organic matter, soil water management, fungus and bacteria host, erosion regulator, animal shelter, fodder, ecological niches, direct non wood forest products (e.g. cork, acorns) and indirect (e.g. mushrooms, honey), hunting services, aesthetic value and cultural heritage. According to the recent established EU project “Agroforestry that will advance rural development (AGFORWARD 2014-2017), agroforestry systems can be roughly focused in four types: 1) High Natural and Conservation Value, 2) High value tree systems, 3) Silvoarable systems and 4) Silvopastoral systems. Throughout the above brief description of HFM farm, it is not possible to frame HFM in a singular type due to its holistic management embracing all “types of agroforestry”. The AGFORWARD project is embracing the farm to be studied under a High Natural and Conservation Value system, but the farm is also a unique opportunity to improve existing farm-scale agroforestry models (e.g. Graves et al 2011) as it helps to understand the interactions between products and services of agroforestry systems in a multifunctional concept, a goal envisaged in “field and farm evaluation” work package (WP6). According to the farmer, “if I would do conventional farming practices, I would increase my income by almost double. This is due to the current payment scheme biased towards intensive agriculture”. This was partially studied in Palma et al (2007), and a more comprehensive evaluation is being strengthened through the improvement of models, where innovative farms, such as HFM, are of high importance.