Persimmon, olives and walnuts among potential new tree crops discussed at this year’s Agroforestry Show alongside the benefits of trees for drought resilience
Growers, farmers and environmentalists joined the second Agroforestry Show to discuss the role of trees in conserving water, storing carbon and food production crops.
Hosted at Woodoaks Farm, Hertfordshire, the event is run by the Soil Association and the Woodland Trust and aims to share knowledge and inspiration on the economic benefits of agroforestry.
Discussions this year centred around trees can help provide shelter and fodder, in a year of record-breaking temperatures and low rainfall, along with new crop opportunities such as almonds, walnuts, persimmons and olives.
“A growing movement of farmers and foresters are realising how much our farmed landscape needs to incorporate more trees to protect our food security,” said Soil Association’s head of agroforestry, Ben Raskin.
“There are challenges ahead but it’s not all doom and gloom – there are huge opportunities with tree crops that weren’t viable here before.
”Every farmer has trees they could be making better use of, or areas where they could plant new ones. But the situation is urgent and the time to get moving on agroforestry is now.”
This year’s event moved past introducing agroforestry to focus on how to upscale, according to lead policy advocate at the Woodland Trust, Helen Chesshire.
“The advice hub, training hub and demonstration area have been popular which really shows the appetite that farmers have to lead the charge on getting more trees into our farmed landscape. We desperately need this to protect both UK food production and nature,” she said.
Leading a talk on climate adaptation, pioneering agroforester Martin Crawford, founder of the forest garden at the Dartington Estate and the Agroforestry Research Trust, urged farmers not to wait for government funding.
“We need to do the right thing now whether or not the grant system pays us for it,” he said. “We have to take action if we want our farms and businesses to survive. I don’t think we can use the past climate as a guide to the future of growing after a year like this where everything has gone haywire. There’s an urgency to this because trees and perennial crops take some time to establish so I would just say don’t delay, get something started.”
Information around private and public funding streams for agroforestry is available on the Agroforestry Show website, where more detail will be added in the coming weeks.
