From the AGFOSY final conference in the Czech Republic

At the end of September, a conference of the AGFOSY project took place in the new Pavilion of Tropical Agriculture on the premises of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. This event, organized by the Association of Private Farming of the Czech Republic (ASZ ČR) together with the Czech Association for Agroforestry (ČSAL), was the successful completion of a two-year international project within the Erasmus + programme, of which ASZ ČR was the main coordinator. The main aim of the conference was to introduce the project outputs to the participants, showed them examples of good agroforestry practices from the Czech Republic and inform about news about the support of agroforestry systems within the new Common Agricultural Policy of the EU.

Due to coronavirus restrictions, the organization of this conference had to follow strict criteria, however, ASZ ČR still managed to meet expectations and provide participants with a number of interesting, but mainly practical information from the world of agroforestry.

The chairmen of both organizing organizations – Jaroslav Šebek on behalf of ASZ ČR and Bohdan Lojka from ČSAL – spoke at the beginning. They agreed on the successful cooperation of all involved organizations and the importance of family farms in implementing agroforestry measures into practice.

After a short presentation of the project outputs, Lenka Svobodová from the Department of Environmental Support Strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture briefly presented the planned subsidy title for agroforestry systems in the new CAP.

Another part of the conference, which aroused the most positive reactions, were the presentations of Radim Kotrba, a member of the ASZ ČR Board, and Jiří Michalisko, a member of the ASZ Krnovsko, Opavsko, who gave the participants practical advice and experience with agroforestry systems. It has been shown that the incorporation of agroforestry elements into agricultural land is not only a nature-friendly measure but can also represent a fully profitable option for farming. In addition to the economic benefits, it provides many other benefits, such as increased biodiversity, better nutrient cycling, and utilization, or increased welfare of the farm animals.

Equally interesting was the performance of Jan Weger from the Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Horticulture, who talked about the research he has been carrying out on the agroforestry land of private farmer Jiří Bartoš from Nová Olešná since 2000.

Finally, participants had the opportunity to discuss with experts who willingly answered their questions.

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