Current interest in agroforestry in Europe relates mostly to the wider general focus on sustainable agriculture for environmental protection. This focus is often in great contrast to the urgent economic needs of rural people. A partial solution to this problem has come through funding from the European Union for sustainable agriculture and afforestation of arable lands. Trees, mostly valuable broadleaved (hardwood) species like walnuts, cherry and ash, were planted back into farmland using public funds and with the aim of producing high quality timber, which is in very short supply on the Italian market. More than 100,000 ha of agricultural lands were afforested in Southern Europe during the '90s. A significant proportion of those plantations were established with common walnut (Juglans regia L.). Unfortunately, many plantations were unsuccessful due to poor site quality, wrongly chosen walnut genotype and/or poor tree care. Alternative and new cultural models, such as agroforestry and mixed models, have been analyzed during the last decades for replacing pure walnut forest plantations. These studies are in connection with the Mediterranean tradition of walnut mixed cultural systems, which are now marginal. Researches show that both cultural models have numerous advantages in comparison with traditional forest plantations. Walnut stem growth and timber quality are often improved due to enhanced tree care, better site quality and synergisms among plant/system components. Technical advantages are augmented by ecological ones, such as improved biodiversity, soil erosion control and reduced fire risk. Farmers' reactions to innovative agroforestry systems have also been studied. Walnut agroforestry systems can be more effective than pure cultivation for the restoration of degraded agro-ecosystems and for the preservation of rural landscape. In addition, one important drawback when considering the investment in a forest plantation is the long-term approach as a big investment needs to be done in the establishment of the plantation and the management along many years until the timber harvesting gives back the financial profit. Hence, establishing the walnut planted forests using an agroforestry scheme with some other intercropped used (cereal, maize, aromatic or medicinal plants, etc.) also gives a yearly profit from the annual crop, which helps to alleviate the financial cashflow of the plantation. Walnut silvo-pastoral systems have also been used also by means of turning using sheep into "gardeners" (weed control). Weed control is one of the main management issues in a "pure" forest plantation and one of the most important expenses. Traditional weed control techniques are mechanical (e.g. ploughing between the plantation lines) and chemical (using herbicides between the plantations lines and between trees in the lines). Hence, grazing animals in the plantations turns the negatively considered "weeds" into positively valued pasture used under a silvo-pastoral system approach.
PLANTING WALNUT IN AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS: LEARNT EXPERIENCES FROM ITALY AND SPAIN
Pierluigi Paris;
2018
Abstract
Current interest in agroforestry in Europe relates mostly to the wider general focus on sustainable agriculture for environmental protection. This focus is often in great contrast to the urgent economic needs of rural people. A partial solution to this problem has come through funding from the European Union for sustainable agriculture and afforestation of arable lands. Trees, mostly valuable broadleaved (hardwood) species like walnuts, cherry and ash, were planted back into farmland using public funds and with the aim of producing high quality timber, which is in very short supply on the Italian market. More than 100,000 ha of agricultural lands were afforested in Southern Europe during the '90s. A significant proportion of those plantations were established with common walnut (Juglans regia L.). Unfortunately, many plantations were unsuccessful due to poor site quality, wrongly chosen walnut genotype and/or poor tree care. Alternative and new cultural models, such as agroforestry and mixed models, have been analyzed during the last decades for replacing pure walnut forest plantations. These studies are in connection with the Mediterranean tradition of walnut mixed cultural systems, which are now marginal. Researches show that both cultural models have numerous advantages in comparison with traditional forest plantations. Walnut stem growth and timber quality are often improved due to enhanced tree care, better site quality and synergisms among plant/system components. Technical advantages are augmented by ecological ones, such as improved biodiversity, soil erosion control and reduced fire risk. Farmers' reactions to innovative agroforestry systems have also been studied. Walnut agroforestry systems can be more effective than pure cultivation for the restoration of degraded agro-ecosystems and for the preservation of rural landscape. In addition, one important drawback when considering the investment in a forest plantation is the long-term approach as a big investment needs to be done in the establishment of the plantation and the management along many years until the timber harvesting gives back the financial profit. Hence, establishing the walnut planted forests using an agroforestry scheme with some other intercropped used (cereal, maize, aromatic or medicinal plants, etc.) also gives a yearly profit from the annual crop, which helps to alleviate the financial cashflow of the plantation. Walnut silvo-pastoral systems have also been used also by means of turning using sheep into "gardeners" (weed control). Weed control is one of the main management issues in a "pure" forest plantation and one of the most important expenses. Traditional weed control techniques are mechanical (e.g. ploughing between the plantation lines) and chemical (using herbicides between the plantations lines and between trees in the lines). Hence, grazing animals in the plantations turns the negatively considered "weeds" into positively valued pasture used under a silvo-pastoral system approach.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
