AFBI Loughgall hosts AGROCOP meeting
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An international research team looking at innovative strategies for using agricultural land for wood fuel production held its 5th meeting at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) Loughgall recently.
The research team consists of partners from five European countries including Germany, France, Italy, Ireland and the U.K. All five countries involved are part of a wider European project titled ‘Agrocop’.
The 5th AGROCOP project utilises two innovative strategies for wood production on agricultural land, namely, Silvo-arable agroforestry (AF) and short rotation coppice (SRC). Both systems are recognised as economically viable and sustainable cropping systems.
Nothing is known about the ecological interactions and synergies which might occur when these strategies are combined in a Tree-Based Intercropping (TBI) system in Europe. TBI systems allow farmers to diversify and spread their risk by decreasing their dependency on dairy and beef production with an alternative land-use system. AF-SRC systems have been adopted with some success in China, Canada and the US.
The objective of this European wide project is to determine the interactions and ecosystem services delivery from an agroforestry - short rotation coppice intercropping system for biomass and timber production. Research and demonstration trials have been established at research stations throughout the project partner countries, AFBI Loughgall being one of them.
The AgroCop project will observe how both systems can be combined, by researching the use of SRC as an intercrop between rows of high value timber trees.
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