AFINET News

About 35 representatives of the Galician agroforestry sector, including farmers, researchers, producers associations and representatives of the regional Government, Xunta de Galicia, met for the third meeting of the AFINET RAIN, where they discussed and shared technical, economic or political innovations which promote agroforestry management in Galician forests and soils.

Quinta do Mocho, Várzea, in Santarém, Portugal, welcomed “AGROGLOBAL”, an event aimed at the promotion of agriculture related businesses, from the 5^th to the 7^th of September.

Around 30 people attended the meeting, which took place in EDIA’s headquarters in Beja, Portugal.

Members of the Finnish Agroforestry Innovation Network met to see how landscape and forest management can be combined with sheep herding.

The group discussed how to develop agroforestry in Poland in the context of national legislative acts and regulations and how include it in quality assessment systems with possible use of existing procedures and systems e.g. those existing within organic agriculture framework.

On 2nd of June, the stakeholders took part in the celebration of shepherds and wood pasture in Olaszfalu, a small village near the lake Balaton. On 23rd of June Balázs Kulcsár, organic producer, received the members of the network at “Valaha Tanya”, Vértesacsa, a small village near to Budapest.

The objective of this operation is to develop and implement a sustainable model for the cultivation, harvesting and management of agricultural farm using a new agroforestry system (fruits shrubs/trees intercropped with herbs) and biomass heating system fueled by pellets. 

Seventeen stakeholders participated in the training session. Most of them were farmers, people who just started a mushroom business or had plans to start one, researchers and people who would like to grow mushrooms in their own garden or balcony.

This organic farm currently has 25 hectares of vineyard, 80 ha of olive grove, 270 ha of carob tree, solar panels, 1000 sheep, 600 ha of forest/pasture, and a Nature Reserve, and it’s located on Vale de Acor, Mértola, Alentejo.

Kilpiän tila, a 75-hectare organic farm, managed by Tuomas and Iiris Mattila, adapted very well to an exceptionally dry start of the Finnish summer.