The Regenerative Agroforestry Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Propagate is a leader in the agroforestry space, specialising in project development and planting agroforestry systems at scale. It's a huge pleasure to chat with Harry, co-founder and Chief Research Officer of the US-based company. Tune in as we geek out on agroforestry economics, economic modelling, design implications and financing options. We delve into questions such as: How do you business plan agroforestry systems? How do we find a balance between economic performance and ecosystem services? And much more!

• RESOURCES

https://www.propagateag.com/

• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org

• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry

• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture

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In this episode I discuss with Claire Lemarié her experience working with farmers in the Pays de la Loire region in France, where she is a technical adviser for the chamber of agriculture. She has precious insights into the management of mature hedges, as this region still has a significant amount of bocage: a traditional french hedge layout. 

In this interview we gain an understanding of why effective information sharing between farmers is crucial to creating innovative agroforestry systems and how she enables peer to peer exchange through the 'Club des Agroforestiers'.

• RESOURCES

https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-lemari%C3%A9-34b667155/?originalSubdomain=fr

Youtube video Chambre d'agriculture de la Loire

• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org

• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry

• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture

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Mark Shepard is the founder of the Restoration Agriculture farming method and New Forest Farm, where Mark grows food in perennial polycultures, without using external fertilisers, with very limited management activities, whilst integrating animals. In this episode, Mark shares with us the results he has achieved by actively engaging with tree crop breeding on his farm - one of the foundations of his system. Mark is also the author of two books: ‘Restoration Agriculture: Real World Permaculture for Farmers’ and ‘Water for Any Farm’. He is also the founder of Restoration Agriculture Development, an enterprises that catalyses Restoration Agriculture projects worldwide. We hope you enjoy the interview! 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

02:15 How did you get to agroforestry? 

10:44 What is restoration agriculture? 

19:33 Low inputs and precocity of yield 

31:29 Description of New Forest Farm

40:10 How do you harvest? 

45:42 Managing the system

49:20 Biodiversity on the farm

57:22 Process of plant selection

01:02:40 Starting a nursery 

01:07:28 Why haven’t more people replicated your system? 

01:12:00 Which cultivars to include in mass selection? 

01:21:19 What is the key knowledge required to get started? 

• RESOURCES

http://www.restorationag.com/

https://restoringagriculture.com/

https://www.forestag.com/

https://newforestfarm.us/

https://www.instagram.com/restoration.ag/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/restorationagriculture/

• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org

• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry

• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture

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Michael Weitz is a European expert in fast growing biomass trees, with a special passion for Poplar. These fast growing crops are especially interesting for agroforestry systems thanks to their early returns and their capacity to produce ecosystem services early on. Furthermore, the need to find alternatives to fossil fuels and sustainable building materials is leading to evolving economic opportunities for farmers. In this interview we are hitting the nail on the head when it comes to integrating valuable tree crops on our farms! Michael has the ability to zoom into the technical details and zoom out to the bigger picture questions around biomass crops. Enjoy learning about the flexibility and beauty of poplar as well as the challenges that need to be overcome to scale these systems. This is hopefully the first of many interviews on the topic of fast growing trees!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

02:41 Introduction

09:24 Biomass crops 

16:45 Poplar industry and market

22:57 Flexibility of the poplar crop 

29:28 Medium term cycle poplar for agroforestry 

34:56 Which cycle to optimise biomass production

37:20 Management requirements 

45:00 What is the minimum scale for economic viability?

53:46 Favouring medium cycle on a small scale  

57:24 Planting on marginal land  

01:06:58 Shouldn’t agricultural land stay dedicated to food production instead of biomass production? 

01:18:42 Biomass crops and diversification 

01:25:26 Carbon credits and biodiversity credits

01:28:41 Market trends on wood products 

01:34:26 Can a third party implement and manage the biomass crop? 

01:44:22 How can we diversify biomass species? 

• RESOURCES

www.lignovis.com

www.lignoplant.com

www.lignotech.de

www.hühner-wald.de

www.vivocarbon.com

www.instagram.com/lignovis

www.facebook.com/lignovis

• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org

• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry

• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture

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Syntropic Farming has recently gained international attention, and it is about time we interview an expert on the podcast! Whilst I call him an expert, Marc Leiber prefers to see himself as a student of Syntropic Farming. He has been trained by Ernst Gotsch, the founder of the movement, and continues to work intimately with him on his farm, Quinta das Abelhas, in Southern Portugal. We believe there are few people better positioned to talk about this subject than Marc. In this interview you will understand the history, the philosophy and the principles behind Syntropic Farming. Whilst many questions remain as to how it can be scaled and the economics on our climate, Marc told such a fascinating story that we had to leave if for next time. We hope you enjoy!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

00:01:40 Marc’s story 

00:11:55 The work of Ernst Gotsch 

00:41:37 The principles of Syntropic Farming 

01:12:20 Marc’s research farm 

• RESOURCES

www.growback.net

www.instagram.com/marc.leiber

www.agendagotsch.com

• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org

• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry

• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture

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Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Patrick Worms on the show. He is a policy advisor for World Agroforestry and the ex-president of the European Agroforestry Federation. We discuss together agroforestry from a policy perspective to understand how we convince decision makers and what type of funding is needed to scale agroforestry. Although much of the conversation is focused on Europe, Patrick gives some insights that will be of great interest to anyone who wants to convince key players of the opportunity of agroforestry. Patrick is an amazing speaker and you will find this interview to be not only highly informative but also entertaining and full of punchlines.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

01:49 Personal background 

04:52 The appeal of agroforestry 

06:23 Work at ICRAF 

08:00 The power of stories

11:22 Missions of EURAF 

18:00 Perception of agroforestry in policy circles 

20:44 What is preventing a scaling of agroforestry? 

23:37 What is blocking agroforestry within EU member states? 

27:55 Agroforestry in the African context 

34:50 Successful examples from East Asia 

41:54 Funding agroforestry 

46:04 What role for private funding? 

52:36 Is the case for agroforestry clear and properly demonstrated?  

• RESOURCES

https://euraf.isa.utl.pt/welcome

https://www.worldagroforestry.org/

• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org

• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry

• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture

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Thomas Lecomte and Guillaume Sneessens are agronomists and experts in the field of regenerative agriculture. Through Soil Capital Farming, they both manage and consult a significant amount of acreage. Thomas and Guillaume both see an important role of agroforestry for their clients, integrating more and more perennial systems in farm transitions. We wanted to understand more about what a regenerative transition means to them, and the potential they see in trees. We were extremely well served, and could have kept talking for many more hours. As farm managers they have also started a 5ha alley cropping trial with walnuts and cereals. They go through the details of their design methodology and the key decisions they made.

This episode is divided in two parts - check the table of contents for more details. Enjoy!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I - Regenerative Transition

02:24 Personal journeys

12:06 Soil Capital Farming’s mission

19:05 Does a transition to Regen Ag mean a loss of yields? 

23:52 Initial steps for the transition of a farm

35:53 Barriers to transition to Regen Ag

42:48 Selling Regen Ag produce

53:08 Where does agroforestry fit in the farm system? 

Part II - Alley Cropping Trial

01:03:22 Alley cropping trial plot in Belgium 

01:15:50 Challenge of diversifying knowledge

01:24:57 Funding of the alley cropping system

01:29:39 Labour costs 

01:35:14 Scaling agroforestry systems 

01:46:13 Integrating agroforestry into a global design of the farm 

• RESOURCES

https://www.soilcapitalfarming.ag/

https://www.instagram.com/soilcapfarming/

• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org

• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry

• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture

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I talk with Felix Riecken who is planting out silvopastoral and silvoarable systems on his 90ha family farm in the North of Germany. The farm traditionally produces cow milk and meat. He explains the journey that led him to agroforestry and integrating these techniques into the family business. His systems being still quite young, we focus the conversation on the design, the objectives and the establishment of the tree systems. This goes from choosing the right genetics, to protecting the trees and managing the weeds. Felix also explains how he successfully funded the agroforestry systems.

In Collaboration with the German Agroforestry Association (DeFAF)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

01:48 Felix’s story 

08:18 Overview of the farm

20:16 Agroforestry systems

30:56 Objectives and design 

40:13 Choosing varieties and genetics

46:38 Protection of the young trees

50:30 Weed management

55:34 Balancing complexity and labour 

01:01:24 Funding

01:10 Next steps  

• RESOURCES

https://rieckens-landmilch.de/eichhof/familie-riecken/

https://agroforst-info.de/

• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org

• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry

• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture

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As Dimitri and I travelled recently to the 2022 EURAF conference in Sardinia, we wanted to share with you the work of the European Agroforestry Federation. In this short interview with their president, Patrick Worms, he explains what the organisation does and its next steps. We also discuss how we can build additional bridges between research and practitioners. 

• RESOURCES

http://www.europeanagroforestry.eu/about

• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org

• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry

• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

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Campbell Mercer owns 40ha outside Melbourne, Australia where he has set up a world class olive farm - producing award winning organic olive oil. Campbell uses a variety of fascinating agroforestry practices, from windbreaks to farm forestry and silvopastural systems. We have an in-depth conversation on small scale farm forestry, from design considerations to harvest and selling. We also discussed the Keyline cultivation pattern and its implications for tree planting, finishing off with the various functions of his windbreaks and their interaction with neighbouring olive trees. Overall, Campbell has not been shy to make use of tree systems to align his production with the ecology he works in. He has managed to harness the ecosystem services provided by trees whilst ensuring they remain economically productive.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

02:42 Story and context of the farm

11:09 Why go organic? 

13:28 Use of black wattle

19:52 Selling small quantities of timber 

23:16 Main objectives of agroforestry on the farm

27:56 Design of the systems

39:04 Sawing material 

40:56 Drying the wood

43:37 Pruning

46:35 Profitability of timber plantations

57:22 Interactions between grass and trees

01:01:24 Planting along the keyline pattern

01:05:17 Feedback on deep ripping and swales

01:10:46 Would you do keyline again? 

01:19:41 Windbreaks

01:28:34 Choice of species in windbreak

01:38:17 Production from them

01:40:28 Interactions between windbreak and olive trees

01:45:00 Improved overall productivity 

• RESOURCES

https://mannahillestate.com.au/

https://www.instagram.com/mannahill.estate/

• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org

• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry

• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.