Agroforestry systems and innovation in extra-virgin olive oil chain (EVOO) in Central Italy: a multi-stakeholder perspective

Agroforestry is a land use practice in which woody perennials (trees or shrubs) are integrated with crops and/or livestock on the same land unit. Such practices have shaped key features of the rural landscape in Mediterranean countries, where trees have been traditionally and deliberately retained by farmers or included in cultivated or grazed lands. Global and European policies acknowledge the role that agroforestry can play to promote multifunctional agriculture providing products and delivering additional, highly important, ecosystem services. Nevertheless, it is also recognised that several constraints such as the lack of knowledge and expertise of farmers, land users and policy makers concerning agroforestry systems establishment and management hamper the adoption of agroforestry systems. In order to fill this gap, a European research project, funded within the EU's H2020 research and innovation programme, started in January 2017: Agroforestry Innovation Networks (AFINET). AFINET acts at EU level in order to take up research results into practice and to promote innovative ideas to face challenges and resolve problems of practitioners. To achieve this objective, AFINET proposes an innovative methodology based on the creation of a European Interregional Network, linking different Regional Agroforestry Innovation Networks (RAINs). RAINs are working groups created in 9 strategic regions of Europe, interconnected and articulated through the figure of the Innovation Broker. RAIN in Italy is focused on multipurpose olive tree systems in the territory around Orvieto Municipality, Umbria Region, Central Italy. The network considers the extra-virgin olive oil value chain, from the olive production on farm to the olive processing, producing oil and residues, at the oil mill. Through the RAIN, we expect to improve the management of olive orchards, promoting the adoption of agroforestry solutions and practices, and to improve the extra-virgin olive oil production process by identifying innovative uses of the bio-residues. This paper reports the results obtained in the first and second RAIN meetings, organized in September 2017 and January 2018, with the participation of 27 and 39 stakeholders from the local olive oil chain, respectively. The first meeting was mainly aimed to introduce the AFINET project and its tools and to implement a participative approach in order to identify bottlenecks and opportunities of the extra-virgin olive oil value chain, according to stakeholder knowledge and experience. The second meeting was focused on the identification of potential innovations that should be implemented within the olive oil value chain according to stakeholders' needs and perceptions.