Could Agroforestry have a place in Ireland?

“Agroforestry? What even is that?” Is a common question when you read or hear the term ‘agroforestry’. Well, according to USDA, Agroforestry is ‘the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems to create environmental, economic, and social benefits.’ Or as I like to say, ‘incorporating agricultural practices into the forest environment.’ This is in the hope of promoting more sustainable farming practices, the benefits can range from better soil health and carbon capture, all the way to organic fruits and less pesticide usage.

The largest consideration we have to make is the Irish climate, in countries such as Brazil and Peru we can see agroforestry have major success, but this is also due to the wide variety of fruits and vegetables that can be grown in the amazonian climate. Ireland resides within the temperate Deciduous Forest biome. It’s climate contains roughly 1000-1200mm of rainfall per annum and an average temperature range of 5.4℃- 15.2℃. With these climate conditions, it would be fair to believe that agroforestry would have no place in Ireland and should be left to the warmer climates.

However, you’d be wrong… Ireland is actually quite capable of growing fruits/veg in an agroforestry landscape. By no means am I saying every farm should convert to agroforestry, but there is the possibility of using land that doesn’t quite suit typical agricultural practices, which may be better suited to agroforestry practices. When considering what we can grow, we must be conscious of Ireland’s climactic characteristics and with the typical microclimates found in a forest environment there are some fruits that are best adapted such as apples, Pears, Plums, a range of berries (blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries and elderberries). However, there is a full range of others that are still very possible in the agroforestry environment such as nuts, cabbage, broccoli, carrots and potatoes. By using an agroforestry method, we can also grow the trees and sell them for timber, this is a regenerative process that is not like typical deforestation where we just clear out acres of land for timber.

But why should we bother with agroforestry? Mainly, the soil health, our current methods of farming rapidly uptake the same nutrients out of the soil each year, never returning the nutrients back into the soil; due to us harvesting the crops before they die and decompose, which deposits their nutrients into the soil. With that in mind, we can see increased soil carbon, water infiltration and a lower demand for artificial fertilizers and decreased soil erosion. Due to the trees and various levels of shrubbery in a forest environment, agroforestry is a convincing flood mitigator, this is because of the higher uptake of water and the trees slowing the rate at which water makes it to the soil. We also then see the obvious case of increased biodiversity, in one field that may be used for wheat in an agricultural setting will have just the one kind of crop. A field for agroforestry could have closer to 10 types of crops, it also creates a better habitat for animals; there are more insects and pollinators, wildlife corridors and with the natural predators there is reduced demand for pesticides. If we use Silvopastures (grazing animals and trees) we see better animal welfare as there is natural shade in the summer, leading to less heat stress, better wind protection in winter and some early-stage studies are indicating at better weight gain in the animals in some cases. There is also an economic benefit, there is a wide range of income streams from an agroforestry situation, you can create honey, fruits, vegetables, biomass and timber. All of which have the potential to generate income, this is particularly good in areas where yields can be slightly less predictable, by having a wide range of crops you are not “putting all your eggs in the one basket”.

Agroforestry is growing in popularity and may even be commonplace across Ireland in the future.

 Until then, please let us know your thoughts or speculations by joining our community!

All photos seen have been taken from Unsplashed.