Thirty years’ ago planting trees in lines into a wheat field at Wakelyns was regarded as eccentric and even foolish (certainly by the farming establishment). But it’s now about to become mainstream to plant agroforestry.

In its 2023 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan (the climate change policy document which tells us how the UK will reach Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050), the UK Government has committed to 10% of UK arable land being agroforestry by 2050 – see here.

That will be a big change in the landscape and to farming: lots of carbon dioxide sequestered and lots of new habitats. It would be even better with a higher target.

Anyway, to help make that happen, Defra (in England) is promising payments – under its new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) subsidies scheme – of up to £849 per hectare for farmers who maintain agroforestry – see here. That’s much better than the old BPS way of paying us farmers a flat rate of about £250 per hectare pretty much regardless of what we chose to grow (or not).

What is agro-forestry?

Wakelyns is distinguished by the system of alleys and tree lines that have been established since 1994 making it one of the oldest and most diverse organic agroforestry sites in the UK.

There is abundant evidence that simple mixtures of crop varieties can provide a way forward from mono-culture towards more natural control of plant disease without external inputs.

Agroforestry is the deliberate integration of trees with other crops on the same land area to gain benefit from the natural interactions within the whole growing system.

Martin Wolfe described the system in this short paper and talked about Wakelyns and agroforestry more generally in this video interview:

At Wakelyns, we have a total of 56 tree lines, some are 12m apart, some 15m and some 18m.

Tree lines 1-11 are willow on a short rotation (3 year) coppice cycle for use in hedging, weaving and (the rest) chipped for use in our biomass boiler to heat the Wakelyns farmhouse.

Tree lines 12-16 are a mixture of walnut trees, apple trees, plum trees and pear trees.

Tree lines 17-38 (planted in 1994, and so our oldest) are a mix of timber trees, cherry trees, and some apple trees.

Tree lines 39-45 are a mixture of apples, pears, plums, quinces, peaches, apricots, medlars and other food trees.

Tree lines 46-56 are hazels, on a medium rotation (7 year) coppice cycle for coppice cycle for use in hedging, thatching and (the rest) chipped for use in our biomass boiler to heat the Wakelyns farmhouse.

Wakelyns has a long association with the team from the Organic Research Centre some of whom were based at Wakelyns for several years. Together with Martin Wolfe, they undertook groundbreaking research across a range of issues related to organic agroforestry at Wakelyns.

Jo Smith and Sally Westaway from the ORC have put together this fantastic booklet describing some of that work and its conclusions.

And here if you want some real detail, is the PA4 we have submitted to the Forestry Commission and RPA: