#41 The transition to Regen Ag and Belgian alley cropping trials with Soil Capital Farming
The Regenerative Agroforestry PodcastShow Notes
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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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What have we learnt from 30 years at one of the most prominent agroforestry research sites in the world? In collaboration with AGROMIX, We are excited to present an interview with Christian Dupraz, a leading agroforestry researcher from INRAE Montpellier. This is one of our rare 'in person' interviews where we discussed years of findings under the alley cropping walnut trees of the Domaine de Restinclières. We analysed many technical details such as tree - crop competition, tree pruning and adapted tree species. We also discussed socio-economic aspects such as the relationship with the local farmers and the reason why alley cropping systems have not yet been scaled. Enjoy! TABLE OF CONTENTS 02:25 Introduction 11:12 Experiment today 13:38 Growth rate of trees 17:43 Impact of AF on the quality of the wood 20:13 Considerations to produce a straight trunk 00:22 Impact on arable crop 00:26:45 Competition between crop and tree 00:30:18 Effect of pollarding on tree quality 00:33:56 How do the trees effect the row crop farmer? 00:38:08 How would tree crops fare in alley cropping? 00:39:32 Increase in bat population and its benefits 00:44:36 Main mistakes 00:48:05 What context for alley cropping to be successful? 00:56:30 Why do we not see more alley cropping? • RESOURCES https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christian-Dupraz-3 https://agromixproject.eu/ • 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 • FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR COLLABORATION WITH AGROMIX HERE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.