A National Network of Agroforestry Farms

The UK Government has committed to achieving Net Zero by 2050. In recent months, this low carbon agenda has outstripped other policy objectives such as food security and biodiversity. The Government is committed to planting 30,000 ha of trees p.a, around 50% of this coming from land currently producing food.  This figure will increase year on year.

UK food self-sufficiency is already in relentless decline; from 86% in the mid- 1980’s to 64% now and still falling. Meanwhile the amount of land available to feed each person on the planet has dropped from two acres per person to less than half an acre in just 50 years.  Large scale tree planting on farmland threatens to undermine our domestic food supply as well as impacting negatively on biodiversity since the least productive land, which tends to support more diverse species of flora and fauna, is likely to be repurposed.  In addition, recent research has highlighted the importance of appropriate approaches to woodland planting to avoid negative unintended consequences to biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

Duration:

A two year project that began in 2020 featuring the following organisations:

1. The Allerton Project (GWCT)
2. The Organic Research CentreThe
3. Woodland Trust
4. The National Trust
5. The Agricology Project
6. The Woodmeadow Trust
7. The Farm Woodland Forum

The four lead Charities will bring together and catalogue a range of farm types and enterprises from different geographic locations to form a network of farms balancing the objectives of sustainable food production, thriving wildlife, sequestering carbon, improving habitats, increasing employment and business resilience whilst providing additional public goods.

The Project will:

• Conduct a register of existing multi-crop initiatives, their locations and specialties.
• Create a knowledge sharing network of farmers already involved in combining food production and trees.
• Identify existing gaps in the knowledge and plug them with bolt-ons where possible, to existing mProjects or establish new sites.
• Examine the economics including productive outputs and potential for added value and employment opportunities.
• Provide information and training through a dedicated portal on the Agricology website to inspire more farmers to adopt these systems, an approach known to increase levels of adoption.
• Seek to involve communities in the management, harvesting, added value, consumption and conservation value of the sites.