Browsing by Author "Giannitsopoulos, Michail"

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    AGFORWARD Project Final Report
    (Cranfield University, 2018-02-28) Burgess, Paul; den Herder, M.; Dupraz, C.; Garnett, Kenisha; Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Graves, Anil; Hermansen, J. E.; Kanzler, M.; Liagre, F.; Mirck, J.; Moreno, G.; Mosquera-Losada, M. R.; Palma, João H. N.; Pantera, A.; Plieninger, T.
    Executive summary: The AGFORWARD project (Grant Agreement N° 613520) had the overall goal to promote agroforestry practices in Europe that will advance sustainable rural development. It had four objectives (described below) which address 1) the context and extent of agroforestry in Europe, 2) identifying, developing and field-testing agroforestry innovations through participatory networks, 3) evaluating innovative designs and practices at field-, farm-, and landscape-scales, and promoting agroforestry in Europe through policy development and dissemination. Agroforestry is defined as the practice of deliberately integrating woody vegetation (trees or shrubs) with crop and/or animal systems to benefit from the resulting ecological and economic interactions. Context: European agroforestry has been estimated to cover 10.6 Mha (using a literature review) and 15.4 Mha using the pan-European LUCAS dataset (i.e. 8.8% of the utilised agricultural area). Livestock agroforestry (15.1 Mha) is, by far, the dominant type of agroforestry. The LUCAS analysis provides a uniform method to compare agroforestry areas between countries and over time. Identify, develop and field-test agroforestry innovations: 40 stakeholder groups (involving about 820 stakeholders across 13 European countries) developed and field-tested agroforestry innovations which have been reported in 40 “lesson learnt” reports, and in a user-friendly format in 46 “Agroforestry innovation leaflets”. The innovations for agroforestry systems of high nature and cultural value included cheaper methods of tree protection and guidance for establishing legumes in wood pastures. Innovations for agroforestry with timber plantations, olive groves and apple orchards include the use of medicinal plants and reduction of mowing costs. Innovations for integrating trees on arable farms included assessments of yield benefits by providing wind protection. Innovations for livestock farms included using trees to enhance animal welfare, shade protection, and as a source of fodder. Peer-reviewed journal papers and conference presentations on these and other related topics were developed. Evaluation of agroforestry designs and practices at field- and landscape-scale: a range of publicly available field-scale analysis tools are available on the AGFORWARD website. These include the “CliPick” climate database, and web-applications of the Farm-SAFE and Hi-sAFe model. The results of field- and landscape-scale analysis, written up as peer-reviewed papers, highlight the benefits of agroforestry (relative to agriculture) for biodiversity enhancement and providing regulating ecosystem services, such as for climate and water regulation and purification. Policy development and dissemination: detailed reviews of existing policy and recommendations for future European agroforestry policy have been produced. The support provided is far wider than the single specified agroforestry measures. The recommendations included the collation of existing measures, and that agroforestry systems should not forfeit Pillar I payments. Opportunities for farmlevel and landscape-level measures were also identified. The project results can be found on the project website (www.agforward.eu), a Facebook account (www.facebook.com/AgforwardProject), a Twitter account (https://twitter.com/AGFORWARD_EU), and a quarterly electronic newsletter (http://www.agforward.eu/index.php/en/newsletters-1514.html). The number of national associations in Europe was extended to twelve, and a web-based training resource on agroforestry (http://train.agforward.eu/language/en/agforall/) created. AGFORWARD also supported the Third European Agroforestry Conference in Montpellier in 2016 attracting 287 delegates from 26 countries including many farmers. We also initiated another 21 national conferences or conference sessions on agroforestry, made about 240 oral presentations, 61 poster presentations, produced about 50 news articles, and supported about 87 workshop, training or field-visit activities (in addition to the stakeholder groups).
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    AGFORWARD Third Periodic Report: July 2016 to December 2017
    (Cranfield University, 2018-03-01) Burgess, Paul; den Herder, M.; Dupraz, C.; Garnett, Kenisha; Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Graves, Anil; Hermansen, J. E.; Kanzler, M.; Liagre, F.; Moreno, G.; Mosquera-Losada, M. R.; Palma, João H. N.; Pantera, A.; Plieninger, T.
    Project context The European Union has targets to improve the competitiveness of European agriculture and forestry, whilst improving the environment and the quality of rural life. At the same time there is a need to improve our resilience to climate change and to enhance biodiversity. During the twentieth century, large productivity advances were made by managing agriculture and forestry as separate practices, but often at a high environmental cost. In order to address landscape-scale issues such as biodiversity and water quality, we argue that farmers and society will benefit from considering landuse as a continuum including both agriculture and trees, and that there are significant opportunities for European farmers and society to benefit from a closer integration of trees with agriculture. Agroforestry is the practice of deliberately integrating woody vegetation (trees or shrubs) with crop and/or animal systems to benefit from the resulting ecological and economic interactions.
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    Agroforestry creates carbon sinks whilst enhancing the environment in agricultural landscapes in Europe
    (Elsevier, 2019-03-06) Sonja, Kay; Rega, Carlo; Moreno, Gerardo; den Herder, Michael; Palma, João H. N.; Borek, Robert; Crous-Duran, Josep; Freese, Dirk; Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Graves, Anil; Jäger, Mareike; Lamersdorf, Norbert; Memedemin, Daniyar; Mosquera-Losada, Rosa; Pantera, Anastasia; Paracchini, Maria Luisa; Paris, Pierluigi; Roces-Díaz, José V.; Rolo, Victor; Rosati, Adolfo; Sandor, Mignon; Smith, Jo; Szerencsits, Erich; Varga, Anna; Viaud, Valérie; Wawer, Rafal; Burgess, Paul J.; Herzog, Felix
    Agroforestry, relative to conventional agriculture, contributes significantly to carbon sequestration, increases a range of regulating ecosystem services, and enhances biodiversity. Using a transdisciplinary approach, we combined scientific and technical knowledge to evaluate nine environmental pressures in terms of ecosystem services in European farmland and assessed the carbon storage potential of suitable agroforestry systems, proposed by regional experts. First, regions with potential environmental pressures were identified with respect to soil health (soil erosion by water and wind, low soil organic carbon), water quality (water pollution by nitrates, salinization by irrigation), areas affected by climate change (rising temperature), and by underprovision in biodiversity (pollination and pest control pressures, loss of soil biodiversity). The maps were overlaid to identify areas where several pressures accumulate. In total, 94.4% of farmlands suffer from at least one environmental pressure, pastures being less affected than arable lands. Regional hotspots were located in north-western France, Denmark, Central Spain, north and south-western Italy, Greece, and eastern Romania. The 10% of the area with the highest number of accumulated pressures were defined as Priority Areas, where the implementation of agroforestry could be particularly effective. In a second step, European agroforestry experts were asked to propose agroforestry practices suitable for the Priority Areas they were familiar with, and identified 64 different systems covering a wide range of practices. These ranged from hedgerows on field boundaries to fast growing coppices or scattered single tree systems. Third, for each proposed system, the carbon storage potential was assessed based on data from the literature and the results were scaled-up to the Priority Areas. As expected, given the wide range of agroforestry practices identified, the carbon sequestration potentials ranged between 0.09 and 7.29 t C ha−1 a−1. Implementing agroforestry on the Priority Areas could lead to a sequestration of 2.1 to 63.9 million t C a−1 (7.78 and 234.85 
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    Data underpinning research article "Effects of conservation tillage drills on soil quality indicators in a wheat€“oilseed rape rotation: Organic carbon, earthworms and water- stable aggregates"
    (Cranfield University, 2019-10-03 18:27) Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Burgess, Paul; Rickson, Jane
    Giannitsopoulos ML, Burgess PJ, Rickson RJ. Effects of conservation tillage drills on soil quality indicators in a wheat€“oilseed rape rotation: Organic carbon, earthworms and water- stable aggregates. Soil Use & Management, doi: 10.1111/sum.12536. Data used in the regression analysis for equations 6, 7 and 8 as well figures A, B and C
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    Data underpinning research article "Whole system valuation of arable, agroforestry and tree-only systems at three case study sites in Europe"
    (Cranfield University, 2020-07-06 08:25) Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Graves, Anil; Burgess, Paul; Crous Duran, Josep; Moreno, Gerardo; Herzog, Felix; HN Palma, Joao; Kay, Sonja; Garcia De Jalon, Silvestre
    "Interactive Figures A1 and A2, along with their dataset. Figures D1 and D2 dataset"
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    Data underpinning: 'NERC Research Translation: Grassland Management' project
    (Cranfield University, 2022-09-08 13:38) Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Burgess, Paul; Richter, Goetz; Bell, Matthew; F. E. Topp, Cairistiona; Ingram, Julie; Takahashi, Taro
    LINGRA-N-Plus along with its Teaching Guide, as developed in the NERC Research Translation: Grassland Management Project, supported by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Innovation Club (SARIC).
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    Effects of conservation tillage drills on soil quality indicators in a wheat‐oilseed rape rotation: organic carbon, earthworms and water stable aggregates
    (Wiley, 2019-07-18) Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Burgess, Paul; Rickson, R. Jane
    The effects of five conservation tillage drills with crop residue levels covering between 17% and 79% of the soil, and tillage depths ranging from 25 mm to 200 mm, were examined over three years. The tillage systems ranged from a relatively disruptive Farm System to a Low Disruption system, with three intermediate treatments labelled Sumo DTS, Claydon, and Mzuri. The study involved field sites on a clay or clay loam soil, where winter wheat and oilseed rape were grown in rotation. In the clay field, the Mzuri and Low Disruption treatments, which produced the highest residue coverage, showed the greatest increase in surface total soil organic carbon (1.1 and 0.48 Mg C ha−1 respectively) between year 1 and 3. The least disruptive tillage system also resulted in the highest density of earthworms (181‐228 m−2), and the most disruptive system produced the lowest densities (75‐98 m−2). In the third year, the least disruptive system also showed a higher proportion of water stable aggregates (29.8%) than the other treatments (22.7‐25.3%). Linear regressions showed positive relationships of both soil organic carbon and earthworm density with surface residue cover, and of the proportion of water stable aggregates with soil organic carbon.
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    Farm-SAFE v3 - Comparing the financial benefits and costs of arable, forest, and agroforestry systems
    (Cranfield University, 2024-02-06 13:58) Graves, Anil; Burgess, Paul; Wiltshire, Katy; Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Herzog, Felix; Palma, Joao
    Agroforestry systems integrate trees with livestock and/or arable crops on the same parcel of land. Compared to monoculture arable or grass systems, agroforestry systems can enhance soil conservation, carbon sequestration, species and habitat diversity, and provide additional sources of farm income. Farm-SAFE (Financial and Resource use Model for Simulating AgroForestry in Europe) is a spreadsheet-based bio-economic model which has been developed in Microsoft® Excel® to compare the financial benefits and costs of crop-only, tree-only, and agroforestry system over tree rotations of up to 60 years (Graves et al., 2024a). The results are presented in both graphical and tabular form in terms of a net present value and equivalent annual values. A description and user guide is also available (Graves et al., 2024b). Farm-SAFE requires input of tree and crop yields. One way to obtain crop and tree yields in tree-only, agroforestry, and crop-only systems is to use the Yield-SAFE model. Yield-SAFE is a spreadsheet-based biophysical model which has been developed to enable the prediction of the relationship between tree and crop yields over the rotation of the tree component. A copy of the Yield-SAFE model, together with a full description and user guide, is available here. The original Farm-SAFE model was developed with funding from the European Union through the Silvoarable Agroforestry For Europe project (contract number QLK5-CT-2001-00560). The process of creating a default publicly available version of the model has been enabled through the BioForce project funded by the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Graves, A.R., Burgess, P.J., Wiltshire, C., Giannitsopoulos, M., Herzog, F., Palma, J.H.N. (2024a). Farm-SAFE v3 model in Excel. Cranfield, Bedfordshire, UK: Cranfield University. Graves, A.R., Burgess, P.J., Wiltshire, C., Giannitsopoulos, M., Herzog, F., Palma, J.H.N. (2024b). Description and User Guide for Farm-SAFE v3. January 2024. Cranfield, Bedfordshire, UK: Cranfield University. 42 pp.
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    Making hedgerows pay their way: the economics of harvesting field boundary hedges for bioenergy
    (Springer, 2021-04-17) Smith, Jo; Westaway, Sally; Mullender, Samantha; Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Graves, Anil
    Existing landscape features, such as field boundary hedgerows, can contribute to food, fodder, material, and energy production for an EU bio-based circular economy. Recent trials undertaken by the project team in the UK demonstrated that hedgerows can be managed to produce woodfuel of a quality that meets industry standards. However, to be attractive to farmers, woodfuel production from hedgerows must be profitable. This paper uses the FarmSAFE model to undertake a financial assessment with data generated from these trials. The net present value of a standard hedgerow management method (flailing every 2 years) was compared with those from alternative hedgerow management scenarios for woodfuel production over a 60 year time horizon. Using data from the hedgerow trials, the results showed that coppicing hedgerows for woodfuel production could provide a profit to the farmer. The sale of woodchips into an off-farm market was found to be profitable if harvesting with tree shears (medium scale harvesting capacity) or a Bracke felling head (large scale harvesting capacity), but chainsaw harvesting (small scale harvesting capacity) was unprofitable. When considering the use of woodchips on farm to replace purchased woodchip or heating oil, the financial benefit to the farmer increased. Sensitivity analyses showed that the use of medium scale machinery (tree shears) made the hedgerow enterprise most resilient to changes in prices, grants, and costs. This scale of machinery is appropriate for local energy production whilst also being affordable to farmers and local contractors.
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    Modelling the yield and profitability of intercropped walnut systems in Croatia
    (Springer, 2021-03-24) Žalac, Helena; Burgess, Paul; Graves, Anil; Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Paponja, Ivan; Popović, Brigita; Ivezić, Vladimir
    In Croatia, farmers are showing increasing interest in establishing walnut orchards for nut production on arable land due to higher anticipated net margins. One way to address the lack of profitability in the initial years when nut yields are low may be to plant arable intercrops. The anticipated impacts of this practice were assessed using a biophysical simulation model (Yield-SAFE) to determine the growth and yield of crops and trees in arable, orchard, and silvoarable systems, and an economic farm model (Farm-SAFE) was used to assess their profitability. The walnut orchard and the intercropped orchard systems were simulated assuming tree densities of 170, 135, and 100 trees ha−1, to determine the profitability and break-even date of the systems. The biophysical simulation predicted a decline in arable intercrop yields over time in all tree density scenarios. However, analysis of productivity of intercropped systems showed that intercropping was more productive than separate arable and walnut production for all tree density scenarios. From financial aspect, the return from intercropping helped to offset some of the initial orchard establishment costs and the arable intercrop remained profitable until the sixth year after tree planting. The modelling predicted that a system with 170 trees ha−1 that included intercropping for the first 6 years provided the greatest cumulative net margin after 20 years. The financial benefit of intercropping over the first 6 years opposed to monoculture walnut fruit production appeared to be consistent across the three tree densities studied. These results suggest that silvoarable agroforestry is profitable approach to establishing walnut orchards.
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    Optimising conservation tillage systems for wheat and oilseed rape production.
    (2017-02) Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Burgess, Paul J.; Rickson, R. Jane; Littlemore, James
    The aims of the thesis are to determine the effect of different conservation tillage systems on the agronomic, environmental and economic performance of a wheat and oilseed rape rotation, and to understand the processes involved so that the systems can be improved. The field research examined five systems over three seasons (September 2013 to August 2016) in two fields (one clay and one clay loam) in Northamptonshire. The most disruptive tillage treatment was the Farm system comprising the use of a Sumo Trio when establishing oilseed rape, and the Sumo Trio and a Kuhn seed drill when establishing wheat. The least disruptive system was a Väderstad Seed Hawk or Rapid. The other three treatments were all one pass conservation tillage systems comprising a Claydon Hybrid Drill, a Mzuri Pro til 3, and a Sumo Deep Tillage Seeder (DTS). To understand the effect on draught and soil disturbance, specific components of the systems were tested under controlled conditions at Cranfield University’s soil bin facility. The shallow working Väderstad required the lowest draught and disturbed less soil than deep working treatments. A low aspect ratio (working depth/implement width) and rake angle reduced the draught. In the field immediately after tillage, the Farm system showed the greatest reduction in bulk density and penetration resistance at 0-50 mm and 150-200 mm, but this effect was not maintained during the season. The level of surface residue was lowest (15%) with the Farm system and greatest (75%) with the Väderstad. The shallow Väderstad led to the highest earthworm abundance in all years and both fields, proportions of water stable aggregates and microbial biomass carbon in third and first year respectively. In the clay field, blackgrass infestation doubled from 8.2% in 2013-14 to 16.0% in 2015-16; it was not a major problem in the clay loam field. Due to high variability, there was no significant effect (p>0.05) of tillage treatments on the yield of wheat and oilseed rape over the 3-year trial period in either field, except when delayed drilling of oilseed rape with the Sumo DTS in September 2015 which led to reduced yields. At a reduced significance level of p=0.15, higher yields observed for Väderstad and Mzuri in the clay soil were associated with higher levels of organic matter. The relative profitability of the five systems was primarily determined by the assumed yields and secondly by the cost of the systems. The predicted annual net margin for the five systems varied from £545 to £659 ha¯¹. The calculated cost of the five tillage systems (assuming working areas ranging from 370 to 1,100 ha) ranged from £11 to £31 ha¯¹ a¯¹, with the lowest cost achieved by the 6 m Claydon system. Assuming blackgrass weeds are not an issue, shallow low disturbance systems can result in low costs, improved soil biology and carbon storage, and sustainable high yields.
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    Quantifying regulating ecosystem services with increased tree densities on European farmland
    (MDPI, 2020-08-18) Crous-Duran, Josep; Graves, Anil R.; García de Jalón, Silvestre; Kay, Sonja; Tomé, Margarida; Burgess, Paul J.; Giannitsopoulos, Michail; Palma, João H. N.
    Agroforestry systems have been compared to agricultural and forestry alternatives, providing a land-use solution for additional environmental benefits while maintaining similar levels of productivity. However, there is scarce research assessing such patterns across a pan-European scale using a common methodology. This study aims to improve our understanding of the role of trees in three different regulating ecosystem services—(1) soil erosion, (2) nitrate leaching and (3) carbon sequestration—in traditional and innovative agroforestry systems in Europe through a consistent modeling approach. The systems’ assessment spans environmentally from the Mediterranean environmental region in Portugal to the Continental environmental region in Switzerland and Germany to the Atlantic environmental region in the United Kingdom. Modeled tree densities were compared in the different land-use alternatives, ranging from zero (agriculture with only crops or pasture) to forestry (only trees). The methodology included the use of a biophysical model (Yield-SAFE) where the quantification of the environmental benefits was integrated. Results show a consistent improvement of regulating ecosystem services can be expected when introducing trees in the farming landscapes in different environmental regions in Europe. For all the systems, the forestry alternatives presented the best results in terms of a decrease in soil erosion of 51% (±29), a decrease of nearly all the nitrate leaching (98% ± 1) and an increase in the carbon sequestration of up to 238 Mg C ha−1 (±140). However, these alternatives are limited in the variety of food, energy and/or materials provided. On the other hand, from an arable or pure-pasture alternative starting point, an increase in agroforestry tree density could also be associated with a decrease in soil erosion of up to 25% (±17), a decrease in nitrates leached of up to 52% (±34) and an increase in the carbon sequestered of 163 Mg C ha−1 (±128) while at the same time ensuring the same levels of biomass growth and an increase in product diversification