Agroforestry in Austria

Website (in English): https://www.zukunftsraumland.at/project/2420

Funding:

• EIP Agri (European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural productivity and Sustainability)
• Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism (BMLRT)

Background:

Interest in agroforestry is growing in Austria, but explicit contact points for farmers, practical know-how exchange, examples in practice and national support is lacking.

Aim of the Project:

Know-how transfer of experiences from Switzerland and Germany to Austria is the key objective in our project. Therefore, six farmers received intensive advice within the project. The farms which have different operational focus and different site conditions are located in the eastern part of Austria, where the environmental and economic pressure on arable land is very high. In 2021 all six farmers finished the implementation of their individually chosen AFS on plots of their farms. The farm-specific aim of the AFS differed widely.

Besides gaining practical know-how of establishing and cultivating silvoarable AFS, a further objective of the project is to interlink parties interested in AFS in Austria. Workshops on the few AF-farms in Austria, which established AF at least since 2016, and workshops on AF-farms in Switzerland were organised and people interested were invited to attend The exchange of AF experiences was deepened during farm visits at the six project farms.  

As it is an implementation project and not a scientific project, there are only few accompanying investigations: assessing the climate impact of the AFS in Austria, surveying agro economic issues of two AFS and examining the legal situation in Austria.

The tree-year projects will end in winter 2022, when the know-how transfer and experiences from the AFS implementation will result in specific information materials for farmers in Austria as well as a manual for advisors. An Agroforestry-Conference will take place in autumn 2022 in Austria. The farms taking part in the project should function as demonstration farms for others as well as the agroforestry network, established during the project, will continue beyond the project period.

Cooperation partners:

• FIBL Austria
• ZHAW Life Sciences und Facility Management
• Burkhard Kayser
• Baumfeldwirtschaft Philipp Gerhardt
• Chamber of Agriculture in Lower Austria
• Experimental Station Plant Production of Styria
• University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU): Division of Organic Farming (IFÖL) & Institute of Viticulture and Pomology (WOB)
• Farmers Association Bio Austria

Contact: Theresia Markut or Peter Meindl