Land use competition between food/feed and energy crops could exclude the establishment of SRC on productive agricultural land. A solution could be the cultivation of multipurpose plantations producing biomass and logs for industry. These are mixed plantations of high value timber trees and SRC of poplars and willows. The advantages of this cultural model could be that: (i) the farmers can receive payments for biomass every 2-5 years for 10 or more years when high value timber trees are in the ju - venile phase; (ii) the high value timber trees can be planted at definitive spacing, so that plantation thinning could be avoided, reducing production cost; (iii) the SRC, with a rapid canopy closure, have a positive environmental impact reducing soil erosion and increasing biodiversity (soil fauna, birds and little mammals); (iv) the SRC can protect the high value timber trees from wind and storm; (v) a modulated light competition of SRC towards the high value timber trees causes the correct growth of their stem and the formation of a smaller number of thin branches, in comparison to traditional mono-cultural model of plantation forestry, reducing pruning intensity. This new cultural model has been tested in Northern (Piedmont and Lombardy) and Central Italy (Umbria) with a research projects coordinated in Italy by CNR-IBAF "Agro-coop", funded by Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food policies in the frame of Woodwisdom-Eranet EUPF7. This paper reports the result obtained during the first 7 years of growth concerning biomass production of SRC, survival, growth, leaf phenology and form characteristics of the high value timber trees. The influence of the cultural model on soil moisture and nutrients and solar radiation du - ring the seventh growing season are also studied with the aim to increasing the system efficiency in promoting the growth of both components, reducing competitive in
AgroCop Systems-mixing timber and bioenergy trees: 7 years growth and ecophysiological results in experimental plots in Casale Monferrato, Po Valley.
Pierluigi Paris;Luca Tosi;
2014
Abstract
Land use competition between food/feed and energy crops could exclude the establishment of SRC on productive agricultural land. A solution could be the cultivation of multipurpose plantations producing biomass and logs for industry. These are mixed plantations of high value timber trees and SRC of poplars and willows. The advantages of this cultural model could be that: (i) the farmers can receive payments for biomass every 2-5 years for 10 or more years when high value timber trees are in the ju - venile phase; (ii) the high value timber trees can be planted at definitive spacing, so that plantation thinning could be avoided, reducing production cost; (iii) the SRC, with a rapid canopy closure, have a positive environmental impact reducing soil erosion and increasing biodiversity (soil fauna, birds and little mammals); (iv) the SRC can protect the high value timber trees from wind and storm; (v) a modulated light competition of SRC towards the high value timber trees causes the correct growth of their stem and the formation of a smaller number of thin branches, in comparison to traditional mono-cultural model of plantation forestry, reducing pruning intensity. This new cultural model has been tested in Northern (Piedmont and Lombardy) and Central Italy (Umbria) with a research projects coordinated in Italy by CNR-IBAF "Agro-coop", funded by Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food policies in the frame of Woodwisdom-Eranet EUPF7. This paper reports the result obtained during the first 7 years of growth concerning biomass production of SRC, survival, growth, leaf phenology and form characteristics of the high value timber trees. The influence of the cultural model on soil moisture and nutrients and solar radiation du - ring the seventh growing season are also studied with the aim to increasing the system efficiency in promoting the growth of both components, reducing competitive inI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
