A new booklet has been published this week aiming to provide clarity to farmers and foresters on the area of agroforestry.
Agroforestry is a collective name for land-use practices where trees are combined with crops and/or animals on the same unit of land.
The practice involves “significant ecological or economic interactions” between the trees and the agricultural components.
Agroforestry scheme
The new booklet, produced by the Irish Agroforestry Forum, is an informative guide to the agroforestry measure, Forest Type 8 (FT8), which is part of the Afforestation Scheme 2023 – 2027.
The measure, which is open to farmers and non-farmers, offers establishment grants and annual premiums paid for 10 years.
Applicants who qualify as farmers with entitlements will be able to draw Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) payment on their agroforestry and the Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) support payments, subject to certain conditions.
Farmers in the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) can also claim organic payments on areas under agroforestry.
Booklet
Maureen Kilgore, Irish Agroforestry Forum manager, told Agriland the booklet was produced in response to farmers and foresters who approached them seeking information about how agroforestry would work in their system.
“Agroforestry, in itself, is not a new thing. It’s been practiced for as long as humans have been farming, but the practice of agroforestry in Ireland as an environmental protection tool is new.
“The way we’re practicing it today in Ireland is also very new and innovative, and it’s a new form of agri-environmental practice,” she said.
Kilgore said that farmers are realising the potential environmental and economic benefit of integrating trees into their farming systems.
She added that the “significant” grants available under the agroforestry measure are attractive to farmers.
Information
The Irish Agroforestry Forum has received a “huge number of queries” by email and phone and from people attending their farm walks which Kilgore said has “highlighted the need for expert information on design and planning”.
The booklet covers a range of topics including suitable site characteristics, the scheme application process, planning and design, tree protection, plantation management and ash dieback conversion.
Clive Bright, an organic farmer based in Co. Sligo who incorporates agroforestry in his enterprise, helped to design the guide.
The booklet can be downloaded through the Irish Agroforestry Forum website, while printed copies will be available at the forum’s farm walk events in September and October.
Kilgore noted that the guide will be adjusted online if scheme support details change or are updated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
She said that learned experiences from farmers who adopt the practice on their lands may also be included as future case studies in the “working document”.
The Irish Agroforestry Forum has run around 14 farm walks around the country since March.
The next event will take place on a 13ha organic farm owned by Rossa Gibbons in Munig, Skibbereen, Co. Cork on September 25.
The farm features a 2.4ha agroforestry plot established five years ago which includes a silvopasture system with Shropshire sheep.
Another walk is due to take place at the O’Connor family farm in Fossa, Killarney, Co. Kerry on October 3 which includes around 20ac of woodland grazing.