/pdf/current-extent-and-stratification-of-agroforestry-in-the-13a9zwpqfe.pdf

Current extent and stratification of agroforestry in the European Union

https://arpi.unipi.it/bitstream/11568/924580/1/1-s2.0-S0264837717305227-main.pdf

Typology and distribution of small farms in Europe: Towards a better picture

https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa49629/Download/0049629-19032019155715.pdf

Agroforestry creates carbon sinks whilst enhancing the environment in agricultural landscapes in europe

Agroforestry is increasingly being recognized as a holistic food production system that can have numerous significant environmental, economic, and social benefits This growing recognition is paralleled in the USA by the budding interest in regenerative agriculture and motivation to certify regenerative practices Current efforts to develop a regenerative agriculture certification offer an opportunity to consider agroforestry’s role in furthering regenerative goals To understand this opportunity, we first examine how agroforestry practices can advance regenerative agriculture’s five core environmental concerns: soil fertility and health, water quality, biodiversity, ecosystem health, and carbon sequestration Next, we review a subset of certification programs, standards, guidelines, and associated scientific literature to understand existing efforts to standardize agroforestry We determine that development of an agroforestry standard alongside current efforts to certify regenerative agriculture offers an opportunity to leverage common goals and strengths of each Additionally, we determine that there is a lack of standards with measurable criteria available for agroforestry, particularly in temperate locations Lastly, we propose a framework and general, measurable criteria for an agroforestry standard that could potentially be implemented as a standalone standard or built into existing agriculture, forestry, or resource conservation certification programs

/pdf/agroforestry-standards-for-regenerative-agriculture-39o7hdntxp.pdf

Agroforestry standards for regenerative agriculture.

The diversification of cropping systems encompasses different strategies that may help maintain or enhance the sustainability of agriculture. Thousands of experiments have been carried out around the world since almost five decades to evaluate and compare the performances of various diversification strategies in a wide array of agroecosystems and climates. Although these analyses have been synthesized in a growing number of meta-analyses, the information remains somewhat fragmented. A multicriteria systematic synthesis of worldwide agricultural diversification is still lacking. Here, we review all meta-analyses conducted on crop diversification strategies and produce a detailed overview of their results and of their quality. We identified and analyzed 99 meta-analyses summarizing the results of more than 3700 agronomic experiments on seven crop diversification strategies. Among these strategies, rotation and associated plant species are dominant in the literature followed by intercropping, agroforestry and landscape heterogeneity. Our analysis reveals that rotation and intercropping are associated with yield increases. Agroforestry systematically induces an improvement of biodiversity and soil quality—in particular soil organic carbon. We show that, regardless of the context, a combination of several diversification strategies outperforms any individual strategy. Our review reveals that a significant knowledge gap remains, in particular regarding water use, farmers' profitability, product quality and production stability. Few meta-analyses investigate the performance of landscape heterogeneity and of systems with species other than cereals and pulses. Additionally, we show that most of the meta-analyses studied cannot be considered fully transparent and reproducible. Their conclusions should therefore be interpreted with caution. Our systematic mapping provides a benchmark to guide and improve the relevance and reliability of future meta-analyses in agronomy.

Przemko Pachana

Papers

Current extent and stratification of agroforestry in the European Union

Current extent and trends of agroforestry in the EU27