Agroforestry.EU

During the European research programme SAFE (Silvorable Agroforestry For Europe / www.ensam.inra.fr/safe/), a survey among cereal farmers in several French regions have shown that almost 30% of interviewed farmers were willing to attempt an agroforestry project on their farm.

This survey has also highlighted the need for farmers to obtain technical support in the implementation process and management of agroforestry systems. Another outcome of this study was the lack of access to information from extension services, the lack of knowledge on agroforestry and the type of advice to give to farmers. Facing this demand, about twenty research and development teams gathered to set up a National Development Programme, funded by the French Ministry of Agriculture and several regional local authorities.

 The first phase of this programme (2006-2008) resulted in: 

• Capitalizing on research and development experiments and pioneer agroforestry projects
• Providing decision making tools to all agroforestry stakeholders, based on research studies from all European research partners on modelling agroforestry systems
• Creating a national association (www.agroforesterie.fr) to organise and exchange information, follow up with regulation reforms and increase building capacity of development agents through training programmes
• Building a national network of 50 farms experimenting with agroforestry

 The second phase (2009-2011) aims at improving the agro-ecological performances of agroforestry systems. Based on the national network, this new phase will focus on enhancing the management of agroforestry systems on 4 main aspects:

• Biodiversity: assessment of functional biodiversity in agroforestry systems
• Water: evaluation of water cycle in agroforestry systems and their impact in water conservation in sensitive areas
• Soil: study of the impact of agroforestry systems on soil fertility (biological activity and organic matter aspects)
• Biomass: evaluation of energy biomass production potential by agroforestry systems

 Throughout the different phases of this programme an significant effort has been made to improve communication tools and share information on the role and issues of agroforestry and its development at grassroots level. A book (written in French) has been published in 2008 by Christian Dupraz and Fabien Liagre and more recently a 65 mn documentary in 2009 (Authors: Fabien Liagre and Nicolas Girardin).

This documentary has been filmed during the National Agroforestry Programme and aims at improving through images and interviews of the main stakeholders of modern agroforestry, the understanding of these new systems. This film (DVD HD / 65 mn) can be used as a communication tool to raise awareness or as an educational tool for training programmes with farmers, foresters or students in high schools or universities). Through the portraits of pioneer farmers, the description of traditional practices to new experiences, the film presents the issues of agroforestry today and the different management practices to set up and follow up agroforestry projects.

2 years of filming, 45 interviews and 36 000 km have been necessary to follow up farmers during different seasons and produce all the images of this documentary.

This film is available in French with English, Dutch and Portuguese subtitles. To order this film please contact Agroof at contact@agroof.net.