Browsing by Author "Paris, P."
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- Alley coppice: an innovative land use system - options of system design with experimental evidencePublication . Paris, P.; Facciotto, G.; Tosi, L.; Nahm, M.; Morhart, C.; Douglas, G.C.; Lunny, R.; Dupraz, C.; Andre, J.; Graves, A.Agroforestry and Short Rotation Coppice (SRC), for timber and bioenergy wood production, are recognized as economically viable and sustainable as separate cropping systems under ideal growing conditions. Little is known about agricultural and ecological interactions which might occur combining them in a tree-based intercropping system. This mixed approach, called alley coppice, is currently investigated in an European research Project (www.agrocop.com), and has important advantages: (i) a regular income guaranteed from the SRC component; (ii) light competition between species can often improve the stem form of timber trees; (iii) timber trees can be planted at the final spacing, avoiding expensive thinning; (iv) SRC component protects young timber trees from wind/storm damage; (v) alley coppice is expected to have positive impacts on biodiversity, and reducing soil erosion. Three system designs are currently investigated: Simultaneous planting (SP); Lagged planting (LP) and Border planting (BP). In SP, timber and SRC components are planted in the same year; the key investigated factor is the distance between timber trees and the first SRC row, comparing 1, 2, 3 m in plantations in Ireland, Germany and Italy. A tree row width of three meters guaranteed satisfying growth rates of Sorbus and Pyrus timber trees in a mixture with 2-yr SRC poplar (Populus spp) in Italy, improving timber wood quality. LP, with planting SRC under adult timber trees, is studied in France and Ireland, according to timber tree age, species and inter-row spacings. In France, light and water competition had significant effects on poplar SRC growth and yield according to the distance from the walnut trees. BP involves planting timber trees along the borders of SRC blocks. Experimental plantations were established in Ireland and Germany, with the aim of avoiding asymmetric light competition that might hamper stem form of timber trees. Guidelines for practitioners on alley coppice optimization will be provided at the end of the project.
- Social and economical evaluation of innovative alley coppice systems mixing timber trees with bioenergy wood crops in agroforestry systemsPublication . Tosi, L.; Nahm, M.; Paris, P.; Pisanelli, A.; Lunny, R.; Morhart, C.; Graves, A.Alley coppice (AC) is an innovative agroforestry system where high value timber trees in lines are intercropped with bioenergy short rotation coppice (SRC). AC potentially provides several production and environmental benefits, although so far these are poorly investigated. Thus, research on farmer interest in AC systems, and preliminary economic evaluations, have been made on the AgroCop European project (www.agrocop.com). A questionnaire was conducted with farmers in Italy to identify and assess their interests and concerns regarding AC systems. Farmers appeared to be familiar with managing forest plantations as species mixtures and the value of fuelwood. However, the value of the timber and biomass produced during the rotation appeared to be farmers’ main source of uncertainty, with no clear idea of what demand there would be for both wood products, and they assigned a higher rank to the importance of environmental benefits (biodiversity, landscape, soil fertility improvement). This indicated that there was a need to study the economic performance of the AC system developing two tools: a simplified economic calculator for stakeholders, that can estimate and compare net present value (NPV) of different AC systems, and a more complex model, adapting FarmSAFE. Biophysical data was generated using LERSAFE. Wood chips from the SRC component were found to have a low market value, and AC profitability depends mostly on the timber trees, with the essential need to optimize revenue from the valuable timber, especially by maximizing its quality. Therefore, the SRC component has an important role to play in increasing the quality of the valuable timber by improving timber tree form, reducing the costs of management operations and for giving a revenue during the growth of standard trees. AC could be an innovative option for timber and bioenergy production, integrating some of the advantages that are characteristic of agroforestry systems into mixed tree plantations.
- The role of rural development policy in supporting agroforestry systems in EUPublication . Pisanelli, A.; Marandola, D.; Marangiu, S.; Paris, P.; Rosati, A.; Romano, R.A financial support (Measure 222) was introduced in the EU Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) 2007-2013 aimed at promoting the establishment of agroforestry systems on arable lands. The objectives of the paper are to: i) assess the implementation rate of the Measure 222 in EU27 during the period 2007-2013; ii) identify the main reasons and constraints that affected the farmers’ interest in the Measure 222, iii) highlight the perspectives in the next RDPs 2014-2020. The data on RDPs monitoring were obtained from the European Network for Rural Development (http://enrd.ec.europa.eu) and analyzed. The study compared the financial resources allocated to implement the Measure 222 with: i) the resources allocated to implement other forestry Measures; ii) the effective expenditures invested in establishing new agroforestry systems. The output indicators (number of beneficiaries and hectares under new agroforestry systems) were also analyzed in relation to their expected target. The Measure 222 was poorly applied across EU27: only few EU Regions have allocated resources to the Measure 222 and only 3.4% of these resources has been effectively invested to create new agroforestry systems on arable lands. Moreover, only 2.3% of the expected beneficiaries has been targeted and 2.1% of the expected hectares has been realized. The main constraints that have hampered the success of the Measure 222 in EU27 are reported. The new Regulation (EU Reg. 1305/2013) in support of rural development 2014-2020 states that: i) agroforestry systems comprise the combination between forestry plantations and agriculture on the same land; ii) grants should cover the establishment costs (up to 80% of the expenses) and the maintenance costs with an annual premium for 5 years; iii) beneficiaries should be not limited to farmers but may include also Municipalities and Associations. This new grant scheme should raise farmers and land owners interest in agroforestry systems.