Photo: Frame from the SWR report | SWR
The SWR programme „Wetterreportage in der Landesschau Rheinland-Pfalz“ (Weather Report on Rhineland-Palatinate Regional Television) featured the project location at the Hofgut Neumühle educational institution.
Frank Wagener, head of the Biomass and Cultural Landscape Development Department at IfaS, explains how an agroforestry system can enhance a field. Poplars are among the trees grown at the site where the EU LIFE project ZENAPA, the FNR project AGROfloW and the EU LIFE project AFaktive are being implemented. The fast-growing trees are used as firewood for heat generation, thus contributing to a sustainable and regional energy supply.
The tree strips also serve as windbreaks, with the trees reducing wind speed and mitigating the associated water loss.
Agroforestry systems can also counteract erosion and are a major factor in water retention in agriculture and in the landscape.
The SWR presenter also notes that agroforestry is not a new system, but an ancient one. The team at the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (Trier University of Applied Sciences) fucuses on modern agroforestry systems and how they can be incorporated into modern arable farming in a practical way in order to reap the various benefits for farmers, climate adaptation and regional value chains.
Watch video here (only in German): https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/landesschau-rheinland-pfalz/was-bringen-baeume-auf-ackerflaechen/swr-rp/Y3JpZDovL3N3ci5kZS9hZXgvbzIzMDI1Njg