Agroforestry

Agroforestry is a land management practice that integrates trees and shrubs into agricultural landscapes. It combines agriculture (like crops and livestock) with forestry (tree cultivation) to create more sustainable and productive land-use systems. The aim is to enhance biodiversity, improve soil health, conserve water, and provide economic and environmental benefits.

How does agroforestry look like?

Agroforestry can be applied to all agricultural systems in all parts of Europe. Its composition may look different combining trees, crops and/or livestock on the same area of land in various spatial arrangements or temporal sequences. The trees may be arranged as single stems, in rows or in groups, while grazing may also take place inside plots or on the edges (hedges, tree lines).

Types of agroforestry

Across Europe, there are many different types of agroforestry. The main types of agroforestry include silvopastoral and silvoarable systems, forest farming, hedgerows, riparian buffer strips and home gardens.

Agroforestry can be practiced on agricultural land, in forests, and urban areas. Examples are sheep grazing beneath cork oaks, tall fruit trees under which crops are grown, or livestock grazed, or reindeer husbandry in the boreal forest. The possible products are also diverse and can include, e.g., olives, fruits, nuts, berries, seeds, leaves, tubers, edible flowers, acorns, biomass, wood chips, timber, cork, firewood, meat, eggs, milk, honey, mushrooms etc. Systems producing higher added-value tree products, e.g. apple orchards, olive groves, chestnut woodlands or walnut plantations, are considered high-value-tree systems.

Main types of agroforestry according to the Dupraz typology

Agricultural land

Mixed livestock browsing in holm oak montado, photo by João Palma, AGFORWARD project, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Wood pasture

Wood pasture is a term used for livestock grazing under trees which are not classified in the national land use inventories as “forest”. No percentage crown cover value is given to distinguish between wood pasture and forest, as this is decided at a national or regional level, often on a parcel-by-parcel basis. Wood pasture is the most widespread type of agroforestry in Europe. Historically, a wide range of species were retained in wood pastures, often species producing edible fruits or nuts. Due to agricultural intensification, large numbers of trees and hedgerow trees were removed, particularly in northern Europe. In addition, abandonment of mountainous areas by rural population due to socio-economic changes resulted in the deterioration of wood pastures and conversion to forest, especially in Mediterranean countries (Dupraz et al. 2018).

Forest land

Sheep grazing in a mixed forest in eastern Finland, picture by Michael den Herder

Forest grazing

Forest grazing means the managed grazing of farmed animals on land which is officially designated as “forest” in the national or regional inventory system. It has been common in Europe since the neolithic period to graze sheep, goats, cattle and pigs both within forests and on wood pastures outside forests. The practice is still common in many parts of Europe, especially in montane and Mediterranean areas (Dupraz et al. 2018).

Round up of reindeer in Northern Sweden, picture by Daana Fjällberg, AGFORWARD project. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Reindeer husbandry

Reindeer husbandry is when reindeer are herded by people on a limited area. Reindeer husbandry represents a traditional way of life and has a great economic and cultural importance for many indigenous peoples. In northern Europe, herding of semi-domesticated reindeer is practiced in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Agricultural land

Silvoarable agroforestry experiment with poplar and barley in Bedfordshire in 2002, photo by Paul Burgess, AGFORWARD project, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Tree alley cropping

Alley cropping is the planting of rows of trees and/or shrubs to create alleys within which agricultural or horticultural crops are produced. The trees may include valuable hardwood veneer or lumber species, nut or other specialty crop trees/shrubs, or desirable softwood species for wood fiber production.

Pigs grazing between short-rotation willow in Denmark, picture by Anne Grete Kongsted, AGFORWARD project, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Coppice alley cropping

Mono-cropping of short rotation coppice does not qualify as an agroforestry system. However, there exist ally cropping systems with alleys of coppice between lines of hardwood trees. Other systems include rows of short rotation coppice and alleys of crops, but no timber trees. Alley coppice can also be grazed.

Forest land

Shiitake cultivation on birch, oak and alder logs in southern Finland, picture by Michael den Herder.

Multi-layered forest gardens, forest farming

Forest farming is a type of silvoarable system involving planting and harvesting of shade tolerant crops on forest land, and the harvesting of wild forest products which grow naturally in forests. It includes “forest gardening” which is a plant-based food production system in woodland ecosystems incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables (Dupraz et al. 2018).

Picture by Daniel Zopf - Unsplash

Multi-layered gardens

A multi-layered agroforestry system has at least three "layers" of intercropped plants of different heights. Each layer partially shades the layer below it. Multi-layered agroforestry systems mimic the structure of natural forests.

Agricultural land

Intercropped olive trees in Macedonia, Chalkidiki, Greece, picture by Kostas Mantzanas, AGFORWARD project, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Orchard intercropping

Orchards and mixed farming are typical of many parts of Europe and date back to the Roman times or beyond. In orchard intercropping, fruit, olive or nut trees are intercropped with crops. Examples are walnut intercropped with maize, wheat or barley. Intercropped fruit orchards called Streuobstin German remain in many parts of Europe. Olive plantations are still often intercropped with cereals or forage crops (Dupraz et al. 2018).

AgricAgricultural landu

Grazed apple orchard in Poland, picture by Michael den Herder, AGFORWARD project, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Orchard grazing

In addition to intercropping, orchards can also be grazed for example by chicken, sheep or goats to weed and fertilize the trees and crops. Grazing of orchards is a very useful technique, particularly in organic systems with no herbicides to reduce competition for water between the tree and the understory vegetation but also to save time and costs on pruning resprouts from the base of the trees (Dupraz al. 2018).

Agricultural land

photo by Pierluigi Paris. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Alternating cropping and grazing

There are several ways that livestock grazing can be integrated in crop production. For instance, grazing cover crops may be useful to achieve a longer grazing season. Grazing cropland can also improve soil fertility by increasing soil microbial activity and organic matter due to the addition of manure.

Oak agro-silvo-pastoral system with Bolsena Lake on the background, central Italy. The system is managed with a wheat/clover rotation, with temporary sheep grazing in late summer/winter, depending on the intercrop, AGFORWARD project.

Agricultural land

Bocage in Brittany, France. Picture by Michael den Herder, AGFORWARD project. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Hedges, trees in groups, trees in lines, individual trees

Hedges can be planted along field borders, tracks, roads and rivers resulting in a hedgerow landscape typical or many parts of Europe. Windbreaks are linear agroforestry systems which besides offering a protective function against strong winds, erosion and nutrient leaching, can also generate important quantities of timber. Riparian buffer strips are established next to water courses for environmental reasons, for example to filter run-off from surrounding fields, stabilize stream banks and prevent erosion, provide wildlife habitat and function as green corridors, to cool and purify streams beneficial for fish populations, and to slow down flood waters preventing damage downstream (Dupraz et al. 2018).

Both agricultural land and forest land

Michael den Herder

Home gardens, allotments, etc.

Home gardening is a farming system which combines different physical, social and economic functions on the area of land around the family home. Home gardens do not necessarily contain trees, but when they do they can be considered as an agroforestry system.

Apart from bringing joy and enhancing human well-being, home gardens can also produce food. Apple trees, flowers and vegetables grown in a home garden in southern Finland.

Benefits of agroforestry

Environmental benefits

Agroforestry as a management practise has proven to have significant potential for mitigation and adaptation worldwide. Up to 235 Mt CO_2e/yr could be delivered from 10% of the EU land under “high environmental pressure”. Long-term trials in Europe show higher sequestration in agroforestry systems than in crop/grass monocultures, sometimes approaching levels seen in forest plantations when grassland and tree production are considered together. Carbon sequestration levels range from 0.6 tC/ha/yr in Mediterranean olive groves to 5.52 tC/ha/yr in silvoarable agroforestry systems with poplar in the Atlantic zone.

Introducing trees in agricultural fields can increase the resilience to climate change and improve soil conditions.

Rolo V., Rivest D., Maillard É., Moreno G. (2023) Agroforestry potential for adaptation to climate change: a soil-based perspective. Soil Use Manag 39:1006–1032. https://doi.org/10.1111/sum.12932

Economic benefits

Beyond the environmental benefits, agroforestry might boost economic gains. The Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) measures the benefit of cultivating tree-crop combinations. An LER of 1 signifies no advantage in yield. Conversely, an LER of 1.5 suggests a 50% increase in yield, meaning that monocultures would require 50% more land to achieve the same output.

Time series from experiments spanning 20 years for walnut-cereals combinations and 12 years for poplar-cereals show economic gains. The Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) ranges from 1.3-1.6 for walnut-cereals and 1.25-1.4 for poplar-cereals in Mediterranean climates with deep soils and accessible water tables for the tree roots. These findings suggest a 30-60% increase in yield for walnut-cereal agroforestry and a 25-40% increase in yield for poplar-cereal agroforestry.

Extent of agroforestry

The total area under agroforestry in the EU27 is estimated to be 11.5 million ha, which is equivalent to 7% of the utilised agricultural area. Livestock agroforestry is, by far, the dominant type of agroforestry in Europe. The area of silvoarable systems is estimated to be 358 thousand ha. If reindeer husbandry is included, agroforestry covers millions of extra hectares.  For Finland alone that is 1/3 of the total land area.

If reindeer husbandry is not included, the largest areas with agroforestry are found in Southern Europe. The relative shares of agroforestry areas are largest in Greece, Cyprus, Spain, and Portugal.

Between 2015 and 2022, steep declines in agroforestry areas are especially seen in Portugal and Sweden. In contrast, agroforestry has increased especially in Cyprus and Greece.   