Agroforestry
Agriculture in the
3d Dimension
Agroforestry is a highly underestimated tool to counteract global warming and to achieve many positive side effects. Agroforestry is a land use system in which trees are combined with crops or livestock on the same area, creating positive ecological and economic interactions between the different crops.
Agroforestry systems differ in the combination of:
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Trees with arable crops (silvoarable systems),
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Trees with livestock (silvopastoral systems)
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Trees with agriculture and animal husbandry
(agrosilvopastoral systems)
Within these categories, there are many different forms of agroforestry systems. Typical for all types of agroforestry is the conscious use of synergies between woody and arable crops. In addition to the cultivation of particularly fast-growing tree species such as poplars, trees for the production of valuable timber and fruit trees also play an important role in agroforestry systems.
Fast-growing tree species have the advantage that they develop their positive effects very quickly, such as:
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Erosion protection
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Improved microclimate
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High CO₂ sequestration
Fast-growing trees also represent a low-threshold entry into agroforestry for many farmers, as they do not have to commit to a specific agroforestry system for many decades. As in nature, pioneer trees create favorable conditions for gradually integrating other tree species into the system.
The ecological synergies of agroforestry systems also arise from the extensive, particularly species-rich edge structures.
As a plus, farm productivity can also be increased: In French agroforestry systems, a total area yield of 140% was measured, compared to growing arable crops and trees as separate blocks next to each other.
By 2040, agroforestry has the potential to offset more than 25% of the remaining CO₂ emissions in Germany. (37 out of 150 million tons of CO2 annually)
This only takes into account the CO₂ bound by wood growth, not the additional climate effect that arises, for example, from the substitution of CO₂-intensive products such as concrete. To achieve this goal, around 10% of Germany's agricultural land (1.7 million hectares) would have to be planted with fast-growing trees - which enables synergies with the environment, climate protection and food production.
Agroforestry practices are available and provide large quantities of universal raw materials that are essential for a future bioeconomy and the needs of our civilization. CO₂ should not only be incorporated into living, productive ecosystems, but later also permanently stored in buildings and products, e.g. as a wood building material.