The SAFE Project > Objectives
Silvoarable agroforestry comprises widely-spaced
trees intercropped with arable crops. This project builds on recent findings
that indicate that modern silvoarable production systems are very efficient
in terms of resource use, and could introduce an innovative agricultural
production system that will be both environment-friendly and economically
profitable. Growing high quality trees in association with arable crops
in European fields may improve the sustainability of farming systems,
diversify farmers incomes, provide new products to the wood industry,
and create novel landscapes of high value. In support of the European
Common Agricultural Policy, the SAFE project will provide models and databases
for assessing the profitability of silvoarable systems, and will suggest
unified European policy guidelines for implementing agroforestry.

Trees
in arable land provide also environmental benefits such as protection
for livestock
Here an oak tree in Italy (Maremma grossetana, Southern Toscana)
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Poplars
and wheat in a mature agroforestry plot
(Vézénobres, France)
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Our goals are to
- reduce the uncertainties concerning
the validity of silvoarable systems
- extrapolate plot-scale
results to individual farms or sub-regions
- suggest unified European policy
guidelines for implementing agroforestry
The first main objective of the project is to reduce
the uncertainties concerning the validity of silvoarable systems.
Data from both traditional silvoarable systems and recent silvoarable
experiments will be collated in a modelling framework that will be used
to predict the outcomes of silvoarable management scenarios at the plot
scale. This objective implies two technological and scientific tasks:
- to build up a network to monitor the unique resource in silvoarable
experiments provided by the participants in the consortium using agreed
measurement protocols and database structures;
- to design and validate a mechanistic model of tree-crop interactions
in silvoarable plots. An inception workshop will allow to compare existing
models produced in previous European or International programmes and
prioritise the need for new modules. The model will be validated using
available experimental data from the consortium, and will be used for
predicting the future yields from silvoarable plots at a variety of
European sites.
The second main objective is to extrapolate plot-scale
results to individual farms or sub-regions, and to provide a unified
framework to assess the impact of agricultural prices and EU regulations
on the likely uptake of agroforestry. This second main objective implies
three tasks:
- to link the biophysical modelling of a silvoarable plot with economic
modelling tools, and to upscale the resulting integrated bio-economic
model from the plot scale to the farm and the regional scales;
- to identify where, in different European countries, agricultural and
forestry policies are conflicting over the silvoarable agroforestry
issue;
- to define and predict the economic outcomes of a range of scenarios
for implementation of silvoarable agroforestry, to compare these outcomes
with existing land use profitability, and to consider the wider issues
of grant eligibility, environmental impacts, or taxation levels which
may constrain the uptake of agroforestry in Europe. At the moment, many
European farmers are deterred from establishing modern agroforestry
systems because of legal and policy issues, rather than by their lack
of profitability. Simultaneously, most traditional silvoarable systems
are ignored by the CAP. This cultural heritage of rural Europe is therefore
abandoned by farmers, leading to the loss of environment-friendly practices
and of valued landscapes. There is, therefore, a clear need to use the
experience gained from traditional and modern silvoarable systems across
Europe to develop coherent agroforestry policies for the European Union.
To meet these expectations, the SAFE project will develop
biophysical and socio-economic tools to inform farmers and policy-makers
of the potential for silvoarable agroforestry to contribute to the integrated
and sustainable development of European rural areas. The final target
is a coherent 'Agroforestry Policy Options' document which can
be used by the EU to frame header and interpretative regulations, and
by Member States or Autonomous Regions to assess the effect of forestry
or agricultural grants on the uptake of agroforestry in the context of
best European practice.
A special 'agroforestry status' will be designed for
the countries where tax policy and grant availability is dictated by land-use
classes. Policies for agriculture and forestry grants should recognise
that both silvoarable and silvopastoral systems are 'legal' forms of land-use
which should be permitted to be on a 'level playing-field' with conventional
agriculture or forestry. This agroforestry status will be designed to
avoid any undue accumulation of European grants by landowners or farmers.
For more details about SAFE project,
clic here to download the technical
annexe (PDF format).
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