About Project
Agroforestry is defined as a land-use system where trees (or other woody vegetation) are grown in association with agricultural crops or livestock on the same land. This combination increases the diversity of agricultural production, reduces the dependence of farmers on one crop and brings a lot of important environmental services (reduction of soil erosion, conservation of water, maintenance of soil fertility, biodiversity conservation etc.).
Agroforestry enables to bring solutions to different issues such as income diversification, unemployment and ecological services. Agroforestryhas an overlap between agriculture and forestry – provides link across these two sectors. This system provides a wide range of services, enabling to contribute to sustainable and inclusive growth, to climate change mitigation and adaptation and to the delivery of raw materials. Most importantly, agroforestry helps achieve the goals of the Common Agriculture Policy of the EU (CAP), namely the shift towards a low carbon and resilient economy in agriculture. Furthermore, agroforestry leads to diversify income and increase productivity.
Agroforestry practices can serve as a zone of transition that helps people and communities “reconnect” with agriculture.
The main reason for implementing this project transnationally is because agroforestry could help achieve the goals of the CAP of the EU. AGFOSY project need to be carried out transnationally because it addresses objectives set at the European level. The project consortium is made up of 7 partners from 6 European countries.
The project is mainly focused on continental North and Central Europe and it searches for new systems that would fit or help to solve specific East-European heritage of collectivization – large fields, landscapes without trees etc. Carrying out this project transnationally has wide range of benefits for all participants and target groups, as it contributes to the exchange of good practices among the different agroforestry systems in different countries.
The main goal of the project is to develop a complex but simultaneously flexible training system for agroforestry, based on the collection of a number of case studies and good agroforestry practices from several countries. Other farmers and peasants can be inspired and learn new practical techniques of planting trees on farmland through those practical examples. This system should provide farmers with knowledge and skills that will assist them in implementing various agroforestry systems into practice.
The primary target group of the project are farmers and peasants. People who want to complete their education and gain new knowledge and skills in this regard and expressed previous significant interest (in undertaken survey) to participate in such a training focused on the issue of agroforestry systems and its implementation on farm.
The AGFOSY project includes following activities:
- the Summary Report of the Current the state of the art of the agroforestry systems (O1),
- 30 Case Studies (O2),
- Methodological Sheets for Establishment and Management Appropriate Agroforestry Practices (O3),
- Study Materials for Students and Lesson Plans for Lecturers (O4),
- and Short Educational Movies (O5).
