Browsing by Author "Graves, Anil"
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Item Open Access 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).Item Open Access 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.Item Open Access Agroforestry as a sustainable land use option to reduce wildfires risk in European Mediterranean areas(Springer, 2020-01-11) Damianidis, Christos; Santiago-Freijanes, Jose Javier; den Herder, Michael; Burgess, Paul; Mosquera-Losada, María Rosa; Graves, Anil; Papadopoulos, Andreas; Pisanelli, Andrea; Camilli, Francesca; Rois-Díaz, Mercedes; Kay, Sonja; Palma, João H. N.; Pantera, AnastasiaWildfires have always been an integral part of the ecology of many terrestrial ecosystems, but their frequency is increasing in many parts of the world. Wildfires were once a natural phenomenon, but after humans learned to control fire, it has been used as a management tool to increase soil fertility, to regenerate natural vegetation for grazing and to control competing vegetation. However, currently uncontrolled wildfires threaten not only natural vegetation, landscape biodiversity, communities and economies, but they also release large amounts of carbon dioxide, thus contributing to global temperature increase. Higher temperatures and drier summers have increased the risk of wildfires in biodiversity rich areas of European Mediterranean countries and have resulted in human casualties. The aim of this article is to investigate whether agroforestry, the practice of integrating woody vegetation and agricultural crops and/or livestock, could be a management tool to reduce wildfires in European Mediterranean countries. Fire events from 2008 to 2017 and data of land cover and land use were spatially correlated. Results indicated that agroforestry areas had fewer wildfire incidents than forests, shrublands or grasslands, providing evidence of the potential of agroforestry to reduce fire risk and protect ecosystems.Item Open Access 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, FelixAgroforestry, 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 234.85Item Open Access Agroforestry for high value tree systems in Europe(2018-01-06) Pantera, A.; Burgess, Paul J.; Mosquera-Losada, María Rosa; Moreno, G.; López-Díaz, M. L.; Corroyer, N.; McAdam, Jim; Rosati, A.; Papadopoulos, A. M.; Graves, Anil; Rigueiro-Rodríguez, A.; Ferreiro-Domínguez, N.; Fernández-Lorenzo, J. L.; González-Hernández, M. P.; Papanastasis, Vasilios P.; Mantzanas, K.; van Lerberghe, Philippe; Malignier, N.Most farm-based agroforestry projects focus on the integration of trees on arable or livestock enterprises. This paper focuses on the integration of understorey crops and/or livestock within high value tree systems (e.g., apple orchards, olive groves, chestnut woodlands, and walnut plantations), and describes the components, structure, ecosystem services and economic value of ten case studies of this type of agroforestry across Europe. Although their ecological and socio-economic contexts vary, the systems share some common characteristics. The primary objective of the farmer is likely to remain the value of tree products like apples, olives, oranges, or nuts, or particularly high value timber. However there can still be production, environmental or economic benefits of integrating agricultural crops such as chickpeas and barley, or grazing an understorey grass crop with livestock. Three of the systems focused on the grazing of apple orchards with sheep in the UK and France. The introduction of sheep to apple orchards can minimise the need for mowing and provide an additional source of revenue. Throughout the Mediterranean, there is a need to improve the financial viability of olive groves. The case studies illustrate the possibility of intercropping traditional olive stands with chickpea in Greece, or the intercropping of wild asparagus in high density olive groves in Italy. Another system studied in Greece involves orange trees intercropped with chickpeas. Stands of chestnut trees in North-west Spain can provide feed for pigs when the fruit falls in November, and provide an excellent habitat for the commercial production of edible mushrooms. In Spain, in the production of high quality walnut trees using rotations of up to 50–60 years, there are options to establish a legume-based mixed pasture understorey and to introduce sheep to provide financial and environmental benefits.Item Open Access Agroforestry is paying off – Economic evaluation of ecosystem services in European landscapes with and without agroforestry systems(Elsevier, 2019-02-02) Kay, Sonja; Graves, Anil; Palma, João H. N.; Moreno, Gerardo; Roces-Díaz, José V.; Aviron, Stephanie; Chouvardas, Dimitrios; Crous-Duran, Josep; Ferreiro-Domínguez, Nuria; Garcia de Jalon, Silvestre; Macicasan, Vlad; Mosquera-Losada, María Rosa; Pantera, Anastasia; Santiago-Freijanes, Jose Javier; Szerencsits, Erich; Torralba, Mario; Burgess, Paul; Herzog, FelixThe study assessed the economic performance of marketable ecosystem services (ES) (biomass production) and non-marketable ecosystem services and dis-services (groundwater, nutrient loss, soil loss, carbon sequestration, pollination deficit) in 11 contrasting European landscapes dominated by agroforestry land use compared to business as usual agricultural practice. The productivity and profitability of the farming activities and the associated ES were quantified using environmental modelling and economic valuation. After accounting for labour and machinery costs the financial value of the outputs of Mediterranean agroforestry systems tended to be greater than the corresponding agricultural system; but in Atlantic and Continental regions the agricultural system tended to be more profitable. However, when economic values for the associated ES were included, the relative profitability of agroforestry increased. Agroforestry landscapes: (i) were associated to reduced externalities of pollution from nutrient and soil losses, and (ii) generated additional benefits from carbon capture and storage and thus generated an overall higher economic gain. Our findings underline how a market system that includes the values of broader ES would result in land use change favouring multifunctional agroforestry. Imposing penalties for dis-services or payments for services would reflect their real world prices and would make agroforestry a more financially profitable system.Item Open Access Assessing food sustainable intensification potential of agroforestry using a carbon balance method(Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology (SISEF), 2019-01-24) Crous-Duran, Josep; Graves, Anil; García de Jalón, Silvestre; Paulo, Joana A.; Tomé, Margarida; Palma, João H. N.Food security, climate change mitigation, and land use challenges are interlinked and need to be considered simultaneously. One possible solution is sustainable intensification, which is the practice of increasing food production per area of land whilst also reducing the environmental impacts associated with this. Agroforestry has been stated to be a practice that meets this definition. In this study, a new methodology is presented to assess the potential of different management options as sustainable intensification practices. The methodology is based on comparing the carbon emissions associated with the production of food and the carbon sequestered for that same activity for a particular quantity of food produced over a specific area and over a specific time. The resulting indicator, the “carbon balance” is the difference between the greenhouse gasses emitted (considered as negative values) and carbon sequestered (positive values) estimated in Mg CO2eq per Mg of food produced on one hectare of land for one year. The carbon balance quantifies the global warming potential associated with sustainable intensification by integrating a process-based model with life cycle analysis and is able to estimate above- and below-ground biomass and soil carbon content. This methodology is tested in Portugal for wheat production under crop monoculture and agroforestry systems. The results show agroforestry to be a suitable practice for sustainable intensification compared to a crop monoculture as it just slightly decreased wheat yields whilst providing a positive carbon balance from year 50 onwards of approximately 1 Mg of CO2eq sequestered per Mg of wheat produced.Item Open Access Biodiversity and cultural ecosystem benefits in lowland landscapes in southern England(Elsevier, 2017-08-09) King, Helen P.; Morris, Joe; Graves, Anil; Bradbury, Richard B.; McGinlay, James; Bullock, James M.Evidence of the link between biodiversity and cultural ecosystem benefits (CEB) is scarce. Participatory workshops were used to explore perceptions of CEB attributable to biodiversity in lowland arable and semi-natural grassland landscapes in southern England. Increased biodiversity was found to be associated with greater perceived benefit, mainly at the habitat and landscape scale. It was, however, difficult to separate the effects of biodiversity from those of abiotic and human-made features, all of which combined to provide an important sense of place. Furthermore, CEB were strongly linked with supporting infrastructure, notably public access. It was observed that CEB were generated through socio-psychological 'pathways' as people interacted with environmental settings, such as acquiring knowledge, feeling regenerated and communicating with others. CEB were also attributed to provisioning and regulatory services, questioning the validity of partitioning cultural services. The findings have implications for practitioners designing programmes to enhance nature's contribution to people.Item Open Access Creating agroforestry innovation and best practice leaflets(European Agroforestry Federation and the University of Santiago de Compostela, 2018-05-30) Burgess, Paul; Moreno, Gerardo; Pantera, Anastasia; Kanzler, Michael; Hermansen, John; van Lerberghe, Philippe; Balaguer, Fabien; Girardin, Nicolas; Rosati, Adolfo; Graves, Anil; Watté, Jeroen; Mosquera-Losada, Rosa; Waldie, Kevin; Pagella, Tim; Liagre, FabienA key output of the EU FP7 project AGFORWARD was a series of 46 agroforestry innovation and 10 agroforestry best practice leaflets for European farmers and other stakeholders. This paper describes the process of over 80 people working together to create the leaflets and the overall result.Item Open Access Cross-site analysis of perceived ecosystem service benefits in multifunctional landscapes(Elsevier, 2019-05-06) Fagerholm, Nora; Torralba, Mario; Moreno, Gerardo; Girardello, Marco; Herzog, Felix; Aviron, Stephanie; Burgess, Paul; Crous-Duran, Josep; Ferreiro-Domínguez, Nuria; Graves, Anil; Hartel, Tibor; Măcicăsan, Vlad; Kay, Sonja; Pantera, Anastasia; Varga, Anna; Plieninger, TobiasRural development policies in many Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries promote sustainable landscape management with the intention of providing multiple ecosystem services (ES). Yet, it remains unclear which ES benefits are perceived in different landscapes and by different people. We present an assessment of ES benefits perceived and mapped by residents (n = 2,301) across 13 multifunctional (deep rural to peri-urban) landscapes in Europe. We identify the most intensively perceived ES benefits, their spatial patterns, and the respondent and landscape characteristics that determine ES benefit perception. We find outdoor recreation, aesthetic values and social interactions are the key ES benefits at local scales. Settlement areas are ES benefit hotspots but many benefits are also related to forests, waters and mosaic landscapes. We find some ES benefits (e.g. culture and heritage values) are spatially clustered, while many others (e.g. aesthetic values) are dispersed. ES benefit perception is linked to people’s relationship with and accessibility to a landscape. Our study discusses how a local perspective can contribute to the development of contextualized and socially acceptable policies for sustainable ES management. We also address conceptual confusion in ES framework and present argumentation regarding the links from services to benefits, and from benefits to different types of values.Item Open Access Data supporting: 'Comparative economics of Sida hermaphrodita (L.) Rusby and Silphium perfoliatum L. as bioenergy crops in Europe'(Cranfield University, 2022-10-14 15:14) Cumplido-Marín, Laura; Graves, AnilFinancial models for the UK and 3 European countries (Italy, Germany, Poland) produced using the Net Present Value Approach and added sensitivity analysis, comparing the establishment and production of Sida hermaphrodita and Silphium perfoliatum with other arable and energy crops. All models work on a left-to-right logic, very intuitive to follow. Disclaimer: the author /s are not responsible for any further uses of the models or decisions made after the results presented in the models.Item Open Access 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"Item Open Access Do charismatic species groups generate more cultural ecosystem service benefits?(Elsevier, 2017-08-01) McGinlay, James; Parsons, David J.; Morris, Joe; Hubatova, Marie; Graves, Anil; Bradbury, Richard B.; Bullock, James M.The relationship between nature and cultural ecosystem service (CES) benefits is well accepted but poorly understood, as is the potential role of biodiversity in the relationship. By means of a public questionnaire survey in Wiltshire, UK, the relationship between the presence of a range of common species groups, species group ‘charisma’, group abundance in the landscape, and the benefit that people felt that they derived from the species groups was investigated for a lowland multifunctional landscape. Findings showed that species group charisma influenced the benefit reported by respondents for current abundance levels, and influenced their response to potential increases or decreases in abundance. Respondents reported high levels of benefit from species groups hypothesised to be charismatic (birds, flowering plants, butterflies) and there was high consistency in the pattern of response. Respondents reported less benefit from groups hypothesised to be less charismatic (beetles/bugs, brambles and nettles), the latter response patterns showing much greater variation. These results could be used to promote a more holistic understanding of the value of biodiversity by educating and informing the public so that they derive benefit not just from the charismatic, but also from the everyday, the commonplace and less obviously charismatic species.Item Open Access Dry deposition of air pollutants on trees at regional scale: a case study in the Basque Country(Elsevier, 2019-11-15) García de Jalón, Silvestre; Burgess, Paul; Curiel Yuste, Jorge; Moreno, Gerardo; Graves, Anil; Palma, João H. N.; Crous-Duran, Josep; Kay, Sonja; Chiabai, AlineThere is increased interest in the role of trees to reduce air pollution and thereby improve human health and well-being. This study determined the removal of air pollutants by dry deposition of trees across the Basque Country and estimated its annual economic value. A model that calculates the hourly dry deposition of NO2, O3, SO2, CO and PM10 on trees at a 1 km x 1 km resolution at a regional scale was developed. The calculated mean annual rates of removal of air pollution across various land uses were 12.9 kg O3 ha−1, 12.7 kg PM10 ha−1, 3.0 kg NO2 ha−1, 0.8 kg SO2 ha−1 and 0.2 kg CO ha−1. The results were then categorised according to land use in order to determine how much each land use category contributed to reducing air pollution and to determine to what extent trees provided pollution reduction benefits to society. Despite not being located in the areas of highest pollutions, coniferous forests, which cover 25% of the land, were calculated to absorb 21% of the air pollution. Compared to other land uses, coniferous forests were particularly effective in removing air pollution because of their high tree cover density and the duration of leaf life-span. The total economic value provided by the trees in reducing these pollutants in terms of health benefits was estimated to be €60 million yr−1 which represented around 0.09% of the Gross Domestic Product of the Basque Country in 2016. Whilst most health impacts from air pollution are in urban areas the results indicate that most air pollution is removed in rural areas.Item Open Access Economics of bulk storage techniques: maize and cowpea storage in Ghana(Hindawi Ltd., 2022-07-16) Bidzakin, John K.; Yeboah, Osei; Sugri, Issah; Graves, Anil; Awunyo-Vitor, DadsonHigh postharvest loss is one of the major challenges faced by farmers in many African countries in their efforts to achieve food and nutrition security. Several postharvest techniques have been developed and introduced to farmers aimed at reducing food losses. This study evaluated the economic viability of four such grain storage techniques using capital budgeting techniques. Two grain protectants were applied at recommended rates in three treatment combinations to jute sacks, PICS sacks, polytanks, and poly sacks at different treatment levels and at different discount rates. Under maize storage, the net present value of all treatments yielded positive net returns. The polytank technique proved to be the most economically viable storage technique, followed by PICS and then jute sacks. Under cowpea storage, polytank proved to be the most viable, followed by PICS. This is consistent under replacement chain method and equivalent annual annuity under the three different discount rates used. Cowpea is best stored in polytanks and PICS sacks. Polytank is recommended as the most economically viable storage technique for both maize and cowpea storage. PICS is also recommend for both maize and cowpea storage. However, jute sacks and poly sacks are not suitable for cowpea storage even under chemical treatment, especially under long-term storage (over 6 months). The choice of storage technique should consider the commodity under consideration.Item Open Access Ecosystem services survey data (Wessex BESS)(Cranfield University, 2018-03-07 09:32) Graves, Anil; McGinlay, JamesDataset used in the paper "Do charismatic species groups generate more cultural ecosystem service benefits?", DOI 10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.07.007. Also used in an upcoming paper, expected for publication early 2018.Item Open Access Evaluating barriers to effective rural stakeholder engagement in catchment management in Malawi(Elsevier, 2023-06-22) Chunga, Brighton A.; Graves, Anil; Knox, Jerry W.Water quality and quantity are heavily influenced by catchment management, yet without participation by local communities, opportunities for enhanced protection and conservation in rural areas is limited. This paper explores the factors hindering local participation in catchment management, analysing stakeholder engagement by conducting in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and evidence syntheses in three contrasting catchments in Malawi. Our findings reveal omission of key actors in the catchment management process. Rural communities were least involved in catchment management. Barriers limiting participation were found to be interlinked and complex including weak regulatory frameworks, inadequate resources, lack of commitment, corruption, resistance to change, poor coordination, and cultural factors. Analysis of the interlinkages highlighted areas for intervention in promoting stakeholder participation which would, in turn, improve water security at catchment level. A comprehensive theory of change-based engagement framework that considers specific socio-cultural, economic, and political contexts to overcome the identified barriers is proposed.Item Open Access 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, JoaoAgroforestry 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.Item Open Access Farmers’ reasoning behind the uptake of agroforestry practices: evidence from multiple case-studies across Europe(Springer, 2017-10-11) Rois-Díaz, M.; Lovric, N.; Lovric, M.; Ferreiro-Domínguez, N.; Mosquera-Losada, M. R.; den Herder, M.; Graves, Anil; Palma, João H. N.; Paulo, J. A.; Pisanelli, A.; Smith, J.; Moreno, G.; García, S.; Varga, Anna; Pantera, A.; Mirck, J.Potential benefits and costs of agroforestry practices have been analysed by experts, but few studies have captured farmers’ perspectives on why agroforestry might be adopted on a European scale. This study provides answers to this question, through an analysis of 183 farmer interviews in 14 case study systems in eight European countries. The study systems included high natural and cultural value agroforestry systems, silvoarable systems, high value tree systems, and silvopasture systems, as well as systems where no agroforestry practices were occurring. A mixed method approach combining quantitative and qualitative approaches was taken throughout the interviews. Narrative thematic data analysis was performed. Data collection proceeded until no new themes emerged. Within a given case study, i.e. the different systems in different European regions, this sampling was performed both for farmers who practice agroforestry and farmers who did not. Results point to a great diversity of agroforestry practices, although many of the farmers are not aware of the term or concept of agroforestry, despite implementing the practice in their own farms. While only a few farmers mentioned eligibility for direct payments in the CAP as the main reason to remove trees from their land, to avoid the reduction of the funded area, the tradition in the family or the region, learning from others, and increasing the diversification of products play the most important role in adopting or not agroforestry systems.Item Open Access Forage-SAFE: a model for assessing the impact of tree cover on wood pasture profitability(Elsevier, 2018-02-07) de Jalón, S. G.; Graves, Anil; Moreno, G.; Palma, João H. N.; Crous-Duran, Josep; Kay, S.; Burgess, Paul J.Whilst numerous studies have examined the environmental benefits of introducing additional trees within wood pasture systems few studies have assessed the impact on farm profitability. This paper describes a model, called Forage-SAFE, which has been developed to improve understanding of the management and economics of wood pastures. The model simulates the daily balance between food production and the livestock demand for food to estimate annual farm net margins. Parameters in Forage-SAFE such as tree cover density, carrying capacity, and type of livestock can be modified to analyse their interactions on profitability and to identify optimal managerial decisions against a range of criteria. A modelled dehesa wood pasture in South-western Spain was used as a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the model. The results for the modelled dehesa showed that for a carrying capacity of 0.44 livestock units per hectare the maximum net margin was achieved at a tree cover of around 53% with a mixture of Iberian pigs (28% of the livestock units) and ruminants (72%). The results also showed that the higher the carrying capacity the more profitable the tree cover was. This was accentuated as the proportion of Iberian pigs increased.