The objective of the project is to demonstrate the interest of a new plurifunctional agro-silva-pastoral integrated management system as an alternative of profitable management to fight against the problem of the abandonment of agriculture in Mediterranean mountain areas and the environmental (soil degradation, vulnerability to climate change, loss of biodiversity) and socio-economic consequences (territorial imbalances, loss of productive capacity of the territory) that this abandonment is producing.

The project is considered a project of adaptation to climate change for the following reasons:

Adaptation to the conditions of site quality and scale of production of different promising techniques for the improvement of soil structure, fertility and water retention capacity, for which there is very little experience of application at a productive scale in Mediterranean mountain areas.

Definition of a way to interrelate at the farm level these techniques to be able to improve the performance of the different uses of the farm.

The main components of this model are:

• Integrated forest management that allows the use of by-products of forest harvesting (cutting remains) as a basic resource for the rest of the farm’s activities.
• Multiple management of fruit trees with the production of pastures to complete the needs of livestock.
• Self-sufficient management of mountain orchards without plowing the soil and using forest resources as a basis for their fertility.

The project is considered a project of adaptation to climate change for the following reasons:

The soils play an important role in the storage of atmospheric CO2. Although the role of soils in southern Europe is small due to their low soil organic matter content, the proposed alternatives by Polyfarming such as: biochar, BRF and crops on a bed of trunks, offer the possibility of multiplying by 2 (or even more) the amounts of soil organic matter. Only in a direct way the application of the techniques proposed in the project represents an important addition of charcoal from the remains of forest cutting. Livestock activities also promote a carbon sequestration by the biological soil activity (roots and microorganisms). Thus, this management system, in addition to providing a profitable harvest to the farmer, also offers carbon sequestration in the soil in significant amounts that did not exist in the original situation of the abandonment.

 

• The applied techniques improve water harvesting and the capacity of retention of rainwater in the soil   
• The applied forest management improves forest resilience to drought and decreases the risk of fire
• Finally, the applied techniques represent a reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels used in agro-silvo-pastoral management

The project is concreted in the start-up of a pilot farm where the proposed agro-silvo-pastoral system will be applied on a real scale. This implementation on a real scale with a design planned to facilitate the demonstration of the applied techniques is fundamental to be able to reach the collectives that guarantee their replicability in the territory. To facilitate this replicability, we will also adapt a space for the realization of practical courses in the field, the realization of assessments and the realization of a guide and videos to demonstrate the practical application of the polyfarming system.