Depending on how its done. None native trees Depending on there demand can be bad. Example vages pine tree 3 inches of rain a year cactus. It also depends on there soil some trees will love it and mybe take over and become invasive if not checked or it mybe so bad for that kind of tree you'll spend most of you're time and money keeping it alive. I'm in vages my best way mesquite trees and none native baobab trees. My soil is 70% clay 25% limestone 5% sand and soil ph 8.2 so really bad. Holds water well but most trees can't take this so native trees work and desert trees that live in similar like soil around the world to pick from.
It's a good solution. But depends a lot of layout and management. Because it's less linear than the conventional agriculture and more holistical. Agroecology it's the sience of the future!🤠 Hugs from Brasil!
Carbon dioxide isnt the cause of climate change. All the planet's are going through changes right now. Its way more complicated. But agro forestry with royal empress is best
One important point missed is agro forestry increases the water table underground and prevents flooding and rainfall pattern stabilises from sudden cloud bursts to drizzling rain so the soil with help of trees gets time to absorb the water and prevents floods and inturn draughts in the summer which is experienced in tropical countries
Not only that but it’s also been shown to help reverse the build up of salt in the soil in dry places like Australia, caused by years of irrigation from mineral rich ground water. Something that can otherwise lead to the land reverting to desert
This is common practice with smallholder farmers in Indonesia as shade crops. Great to see this being explored for implementation in big-scale industrial farming
I don't think this is being done for industrial farming. Hard to believe that chickens go from barely being able to move to such free roaming chickens. Any little bit helps though.
I really appreciate the realistic presentation, talking about the up and down sides. Real-world applications. I've done this with chickens, and its a real obvious tactic in raising chickens and ducks
We do this here in central MN. It’s always been seen as the norm you don’t see a lot of completely cleared fields. Large industrial farming is super problematic. You need balance.
Agro-Forestry is part of the regenerative agroculture... It's amazing to hear how farmers that implemented these practices could transform their lands, and how they can produce cheaper food in a more environment friendly way
Cheaper maybe a good side effect, but to me the core is that the food itself may become more healthy. You saw those chickens, right? They looked very healthy in comparison to what we have seen other socalled farmers have done to them only so we can get "cheap" meat, but often also unhealthy with lots of antibiotica in their system and having to endure painful procedures where their beaks were clipped so they would not hurt each other pecking in overcrowded spaces.
Ernst Götsch applied an even better concept called syntropic agriculture: he's a Swiss who came to Brazil in 1980 and since then applied it to our lands. His concepts are fascinating, do some searches to find out the amazing things this man did.
His agroforestry system is undoubtedly one of the most effective methods, similarly to the practices of Brazilian indigenous communities, which have been honed over millennia.
I utilize Agroforestry, Permaculture gardening, Aquaculture with my ponds, and rotating grazing with multi species and incorporate all of it together symbiotic in a way. Part of the rotation is in the forest, ducks rotate ponds go in gardens to get snails and slugs and in orchard, manure goes compost for garden, etc
My mom's village is located in a jungle, so naturally their farms have a similar style farm like this.. free range chickens running smock between the bamboo trees. Problem is, the family wants to cook us city folks a big dinner.. took them 3 days to actually find the chicken. they run so fast lol
Thats what happens when they dont feed the chikens on a regular basis, we have a bucket where we throw in all the organic waste and throw it to the chickens every day, that keeps them always close to us
@@موسى_7 no.. it's mostly old bamboo forest near the beach, hence why it was so difficult to put fences around your house. most wild animals we found on the village were birds, snakes and lizzards.. oh and the whatever it was that the villagers used to raised and now lost..
Im going to be doing something similar on a small scale (1.25 to 1.5 acres); building a micro-biome in the form of a botanical orchard and garden. These videos always help add lines of thought to my planning process.
Have you considered fruit or nut trees for your tree lines? Also have you considered cover crops? Especially to plant your trees into? for better soil and add nitrogen with legumes and save having to hoe and added food for hens? I see you planted wild flowers but how about before you plant trees, not just a year later? And for all your crop land cover crop / regenerative methods?
Fruit and nut trees would have high water requirements. An important thing in farming is you have the crop, and the supplementary plants. Fruit and nuts would likely compete too much with crops, be labour intensive and not as rewarding as you'd think unless placed well and irrigated. So unless they have two or three fruit trees for fun, it won't happen. Complementary gardening is a thing, but it is complicated and labour intensive, more for a space limited gardener without machines than it is for farmland.
@@j.kaimori3848 well yes but they can also turn a nice profit. But given your restraints, a row of pecan could be just as easy, same water, and competition as any other tree, and you can get nuts.
I was about to say it not modern but ancient technique of farming. It is being done in many poorer states or countries now too. This technique helps in providing portfolio of agricultural products for those small farmers.
It was fun about 6 1/2 minutes in watching the younger fella try to keep up with the older guy moving the soil. That older gentleman is probably tougher than nails
Most of it is the method used not the strength, I worked in tunnelling and when forming a mining gang would steer well clear of the gym fit guys, they are great for 10 mins but have no stamina, the the 160 lb guys keep going shovelling all day. A steady pace gets the job done.
My main concern with this is the emphasis on poplar trees. I understand they were chosen because of their quick growth rate. But planting so many poplars, and only poplars, is no different than monoculture.
@@mihiec Yes really, he's comparing it to (as stated in the video) their intended use being to be cut down and burned as firewood. A small on site saw mill using renewables as a power supply milling them, into at the very least rough lumber, would drastically reduce that carbon emission.
In my country Bangladesh 🇧🇩 it's already practiced everywhere 😊😊 Here farmers free their hens, cows, goats in the early morning they feed all day long and at evening all of them come to their home. It makes the feeding cost lower 👍👍
@@ericotten3034 yep the ignorant wouldn't even watch this though , they are probably watching some conspiracy bullshit or a video on how to how to believe right wing propaganda bullshit , or three steps to staying ignorant ,denying the facts and burying your head in the sand
@@sprintershepherd4359 I love how someone who doesn't agree with the government controlling everything is a right wing conspiracy theorist. Obviously the government control of some things is necessary. In many cases it is not, and people do it better on their own. A good example is how major corporations buy politicians on both sides of the aisle, all around the world and a blind eye is turned while they either skirt or flat out ignore environmental laws. Small farmers however don't have millions of acres of land, so they can't afford to destroy it. They are also more ethical in most cases. You can support them by buying locally produced goods. There is just one simple way that a small government person can help the environment while leftist politicians and the government don't. Communists destroyed the environment at a faster rate than had ever happened in human history.
The scientists and practitioners of agroforestry don't claim that it's a new practice. And giving it a name makes sense, since how else would you classify something if it had no name?
@@Black.Spades This. And also repackaging things seems to get people more interested, almost like they cared more about the associated marketing instead of the actual methods.
Now these chickens look healthy. If i had the choice in the supermarket due to a visuel que, a sign defining this type of method, i would buy meat and eggs from them over most other methods currently available. Well maybe if you have privatly access to an even smaller farm, but this comes quite close to such. Our problem is not with these medium sized farmers though, but with even bigger farms. Some of these fields shown, others have machinery where these fields would just be sufficient to change direction ^^, not even to start how chickens are being held from some socalled farmers. But yes i am glad that some farmers are rethinking their approach. I hope other farmers will look at this and maybe find something that would work for them.
Oklahoma soil conservation districts have gotten ahead of this. Lots of fields that were plowed under have been returned to trees, and they field cows amongst them.
Fun fact: the highest quality of Iberian Ham comes from agroforestry, with iberian pigs that are raised among sparse oak forests. Don't know how reliable it is with the low land density it has though.
Industrial agriculture is the only solution to feed people. If you want to protect nature, cancel LFA/ANC subsidies and let the Alps, Spain etc to be naturally reforested in those areas. Low intensity sheep or cow pastures just disturb nature and produce next to nothing. And the taxpayers have to pay for it.
I know there are a lot of different German dialects across Germany, Austria and Switzerland but I find this (the presenter's) German English accent very cute 😍
@@Tischlerimkopf Seriously? It _totally_ is its own dialect! Plus, the original poster was commenting on the guy's German accent in *English* - which comes through quite heavily, as much as he tries to sound American...ish... 😅
@@JK-dx4ob Hochdeutsch ist ja wohl normales Deutsch... Wie n Hamburger zu reden ist nicht abgewandelt genug für n Dialekt, Hessisch oder Bayrisch ist n Dialekt... Ich bin zwar kein Linguist aber er spricht doch sehr Hochdeutsch oder?
Great content and an awesome presentation. I would love to see more of such content on DW Planet A. My suggestion would be to make a video about Agrivoltaic, the combination of solar photovoltaic and farming on the same plot of land. The Fraunhofer ISE is engaged in a research project at Heggelbach or BayWa and Next2sun who are very active in the Agri PV bussines.
@@thebusthatcouldntslowdown3612 Well, the Fraunhofer ISE is on the academic side, whereas BayWa and Next2Sun are cooperations who build commercial systems in the agri sector.
If you deep ripped the ground through the clay base where you are going to plant the trees, the roots will go deep and you wont have the competiton on the surface for water. So you can then sow a dozen different grass and forage seed mixes for the surface This will pump tons of carbon into the soil and give the hens plenty to eat, plus you will have a lot more micro biology happening in the soil.
This is by no means "Agroforestry". Growing a row of a single type of tree is not agroforestry. Its called "Mixed culture". And this is one of the least efficient ones.
Lol I was thinking something similar. That's a wind courtain. Agroforestry would be something like avocado and cocoa trees combined with platain all at the same time. Or growing trees of precious wood while growing grass for cows among them.
I cannot believe my eyes - just about all tree growers know that mulching not only helps manage weed growth, it also turbo-boosts soil fertility. Trees that are mulched grow appreciably faster and healthier.
I'm in the US in a city suburb and I do this. I have about a third of an acre. About a quarter is a mature food forest of native fruit and nut trees + the chickens/ coop. The trees also provide shade for the chickens in the summer so it's usually about 15 degrees F cooler there. The rest of the yard is permacultured fruit and nut trees pruned small/ shrubs/ berries + annual veggie plants. I don't sell my crops, but do grow about half of our annual food needs. It's very satisfying and most of my plants have come from shared seed/ plants/ cuttings so the costs were very low..
Thank you for sharing! Agroforestry, agroecology, syntropic farming, and permaculture - many names for the same thing, but ALL AMAZING!!! Thank you for sharing!!
Similar yes but not the same. syntropic farming is agroforestry but agroforestry isn't automatically syntropic farming. You know that but this clarification is for thos who don't know that yet. Dear reader please go and research the differences and share these amazing ways of transforming and healing the soil
We have been doing this in our backyards for ages in Africa. They called it subsistence, they called it peasantry, they called it backward. We did not do it on a large scale, but every homestead had trees and animals (chickens, goats cows and sheep). Its nothing new, but its just funny how things comeback in circle.
We didn't plant new trees on the farm, we just didn't cut them down. Our animals, chickens and all, ran out during the day eating natural with night grain feeding as supplementation. Trees make the area cooler and control wind. They provide natural leaf mulch and shade for animals.
It works good when one farm have a large farm. In Ukraine we used to have same approach in a farming. Now this idea is having issue with an ownership. A farmer doesn’t want to decrease their fields by adding trees into them. And also a boards of the fields a pretty thin so nobody wants to add the trees there, they just want to have a larger field and want to have a profit today.
It saves money in the long term. You have better yield (which means higher price) less money on watering, less money of chicken feed, less money/hours on labour, less fertiliser, wind protection etc. It really does save money, time and effort. Plus you can make the trees whatever you want. Like fruit or nut trees. Plus having wildflowers in the tree line attracts wild bees which means way better pollination, again.. Bigger & healthier crops
@@biancat7761 I agree with your point, but it works great in a long term strategy, but poor countries like ours have a very unstable economy which do not allow to plan business activities in a long term.
@@dimayerebakan5803 Im Not sure what an unstable economy has to do with land management? But having stable, strong and reliable crops allows you to plan when things are good and when things are bad. Growing food is a great stabiliser in a country. Im not gonna act like this is gonna fix the economy, but it's a great way to grow meat, fruit and vegetables and firewood in a cheaper way long term. But if you feel defeated before giving something a go,, we'll not much anyone can do for you.
@@biancat7761 Stable economy means that the entrepreneurs can invest in a long term. As for now, speaking about the Ukraine entrepreneurs currently need to return their investment in 1-2 years and start getting money and I'm not sure that this kind of approach allows them to do this.
@@dimayerebakan5803 of course! Well, there is always options! People in crazy situations have to come up with crazy solutions. A really good windbreak and fast returns could be bamboo, the bunching kind. It's very fast growing and it's very popular so you can sell it easily. It's very versatile. Just look at where your climate is, and also find out what originally grew in that area if you can. If something is broken and your current system isnt helping you, of the government isn't offering support, you gotta get your thinking caps on!
Ein sehr schönes Beispiel dafür, wie sich mittelständige Landwirte zukunftsfähig aufstellen. Der Nutzen für alle wird immens sein! Bleibt zu hoffen, dass die Aufgeschlossenheit gegenüber diesen Methoden weiter wächst und sich industrielle Agrarkonzerne mit ihrer Landschaftszerstörung selbst abschaffen werden.
3:35 Dude speaks English to the German hen. Bruh moment The emissions of farm animals could be reduced even further if they were fed algae. I read somewhere that cattle whose food mix contains 1% algae emit way less methane (but more CO2). Also, if algae farming for biofuel, animal feed, and maybe even human cuisine gets big enough it can offset a heck of a lot of CO2 emissions.
Feeding hens is very different from feeding larger animals like cows/sheeps etc. - their (chicken) main source of carbon output is really the source of what they eat and that they poop. By themselves they already are very efficient with this. On other terms you gotta be carefull what to feed your hens, because they for example can`t burp.
It`s reinventing the wheel - what`s been known for thousands of ages. Apogeum of forest-farms was in the Middle-ages. Fields were gradually interlocking with forests - and various crops were planted on these areas. Forests were planted - there are barely any natural forests in Western Europe. Apart from planting specific trees, there were planting berry bushes, patches of herbs, fruit plants and trees, vegetables. Animals were pasteured - chickens, goats mostly. Now, they are trying to make it something fancy and hip, but it was all just normal for older generations.
We've been doing this in the Philippines for years now. Along rice paddies trees are planted as livestock feed in dry month when most grass is already dry. Trees such as madre de cacao, ipilipil, and lately mulberry trees are plantedi nthe ridges of fields which separate wide fields into paddies
sorry I got triggered when you said trees store CO2... idk if you miss spoke but that's not what happens, the trees absorb CO2 but only stores the carbon (C) and releases the oxygen (O2)
@@BlackJesus8463 that's not true, the wood, bark, leaves, roots, everything in the tree I made of carbon, every living thing is tbh, but in a tree it's quite significant, if a tree dies not everything turns back into gas, and the carbon stays stored for the most part, unless you start burning it ofcourse
@@crazyciler50 The chemical aspects of plant decomposition always involve the release of carbon dioxide. In fact, decomposition contributes over 90 percent of carbon dioxide released each year.
@@BlackJesus8463 And that's my reason for looking at wood furniture, utensils or anything. Because when you are using that wood instead of letting is rot, you are helping in keeping that sequestered for more years. Also, if the wood rots and the decomposition happens underground, then the methane and CO2 is not release into the atmosphere and that is what matters. CO2 or methane in atmospheric or water is what contributes to global warming, those that are subsurface is still in a sequestered form.
ahem. don’t sell it as ‘eco-friendly’ as in climate change. sell it as creating a sustainable microbiome that improves agricultural use. farmers have economic survival issues that overshadow completely any ‘thurnburg concerns’.
As far as harvesting the trees. You should stagger the planting, which in turn will stagger the harvesting. You want to avoid removing an entire swath of trees in one swoop for the sake of short-term efficiency or profit.
If you turn every farm into an agro forest, the cost of harvesting and maintaining will rise significantly as machinery vehicles will not be able to traverse easily (inefficiency), a process which will likely revert back to the more expensive manual labor. This rising cost will reflect down the supply chain at the consumer end with food inflation. This DW documentary mentioned the inefficiency and asked the question _why not turn every farm_ , yet avoided stating this is no-brainer of a consequence.
My knowledge of poplar's is that they are a weed tree. We've had some big ones cut down here because they grew too large and dangerous to be near houses and then just about everywhere the shoots sprung up. It's a pretty neat system though.
A good way to minimize the amount of land that it takes up against the trees would be to use a form of above ground for me, for instants container gardening however you would upscale that with much larger rows perhaps made out of concrete or stone,Which would hold plants that are completely harvestable above the soil level of the trees and allow for plants to be grown closer to the trees and for the trees to still get all the beneficial effects of having the ground covered close to them as in a forest which will also hold moisture.
@@frankjameson4889 Imagine a large parking house style farm with artificial lighting systems, precise artificial watering systems aso. Could work. It ain’t cheap whatsoever but it could be extremely efficient and maximize a lot more space.
It's so misguided to use carbon emission as the solo metric, the real benefits include biomass to the soil, temperature control, layers of vegetation, etc. I really hope people wake up and start to understand more about our carbon cycle instead of focusing blindly on one metric.
We have a small farm, about 245 acres, most of which is steep hills and deep hollows, and only the flatter areas and bottoms are used as fields. The rest is forest, which we manage to keep it healthy. In our garden, we companion plant and have clover sown between the rows - this keeps the soil moist, puts nitrogen into the soil that the vegetables often take out, and prevents erosion. The flowers also feed bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Some crops are grown at the edge of the forest, particularly those which like partial shade, and we have chickpeas, amaranth, and other crops sown up one of the hollows. We also rotate pasture for the livestock, allowing grazed land time to recover and making sure that we have deep-rooted native grasses which hold soil, retain water, and grow back quickly. We are always looking for ways to improve what we're doing.
@@krakendragonslayer1909 Here in the US any farm under 1K acres is considered small. Plus while we have a bit of land, most of it is steep hills and deep hollows that are not arable so they remain forested to hold the soil and protect the watershed. Also, I'm not a dude but a dudette.
@@allisonshaw9341 in my nation, among 1 400 000 farmers there are only 800 farms with area of more than 1000k acres ;) BTW. only areable land is counted, no forests, sands, rocks etc.
Great. But why does this farmer has so much soil without any cover crops and in addition it seems that he uses tillage. Whatever he captures via the trees, he more then 100x offsets ( basically canceling his CO2 sequestration ) by tilling the land and exposing the top nutrient reach hummus layer to the Solar radiation to kill.
Thanks for this video! I really appreciate the work being done towards sustainable agriculture. I am suprised by how this helps biodiversity and the climate. Just one reccomendation, I think it is better to not only grow one crop but also many others. Thanks!
Industrial monocropping varies. Most of the time trees are kept as boundary layers, indicators of bad ground to farm, used as a natural disease/insect barrier, or markers for aerial applicators. None of them use trees for reasons agriforestry use them.
All people talk about is how much farmers pollute but nobody talks about the fact that during the summer, crops in the US are doing more photosynthesis than the Amazon rain forest so crops also help cool as well!
Glad to see, people in Germany start adopting agroforestry. And good video, but what is not mentioned is the soil for carbon sequestration! Healthy forest or grassland soil contains a massive amount of biodiversity, that is converted to organic substances (humic acids), that contain a lot of carbon. When the soil is disturbed each year for grain crops, like in European style agriculture, this carbon is released into the air together with destruction of the biodiversity. Industrialization of this process lead first to deforestation and is an ongoing process of soil mining, that leads to the total loss of topsoil in the end! Look at the Middle East, there were great civilizations there once... Now it's mostly barren. In Europe and the US we are in the process of creating just that in a couple of hundred years... To reverse that, we need an agriculture that improves the soil, meaning it is covered with plants and to get away from grasses as main crops. All the grain species are grasses, pioneer plants that only grow well on bare soil. To be efficient, we need an industrial agriculture, that works with ecosystems, not just with single crops. Planting and harvesting efficiency probably will go down a bit with each additional species that is incorporated in the system, but it will increase resiliency. A healthy balance will be somewhere in the middle between a monoculture and a forest, meaning agroforestry... I'm German too btw, hence the long post ^^.
I believe in the end its all about being more self aware and accountable of our actions. To find this balance in the world we must diversify our minds.
For those regions where planting a forest strip isn't viable, plant grasses, shrubs and perennials. They may not help as much with the wind or shade, but they will still have great effects.
1. The problem is not the "sucking out" (0:36) of "all the nutrients". Would be great if it would be that way. The Problem is the leaching of nutrients from the topsoil (especially N) and the fixation of nutrients in the soil (especially P in tropical soils). In both cases the nutrients are not available for the plants that is the problem. What you want is uptake of nutrients by the plant. You want a high nutrient efficiency. 2. Agroforestry can help to recycle nutrients from the subsoil by their deeper root system. And they can decrease leaching by maintaining vegetation during fallow periods. Consequently, agroforestry can increase the nutrient efficiency. But I think this is not really true for temperate regions, since in the winter time trees do not take up nutrients, so they are still leached. But it is true for tropical regions with fallow periods during the dry season.
This example that your showing here isn't being done in the way they used to thousands of yrs firstly indigenous forestry doesn't use animals in this way also they literally lived in forests, with thousands of different tress, plants, and edible medicinal weeds, these indigenous people ate plants and only wild animals.
Thank you for your comment celestial cow, but we are not talking exclusively about indigenous people. Our main example is this very farm in Germany and how it successfully farms with this variation. This form of agriculture can then be applied everywhere else in the world - as far as the conditions allow it.
Hey Celestial, cheers for your comment:) I produced the video. You're right: This is not the way it has been practiced centuries ago, but we differentiate in our history segment a little (5:35). It's the modern adaptation of agroforestry that can be used on an industrial scale (large farming machinery), but still offers some advantages over conventional farming. Of course, this system of agroforestry is used in countries where it is more fragmented like India (8:50). In these countries the agroforestry systems are probably more similar to the systems that have been established centuries or even thousands of years ago (eg. indian hom gardens)
@@kaisteinecke8034 Hey I'm from Kerala in South India and the pictures you showed were probably from here. This way of multiteired agroforestry is usually done in the hilly highlands here mostly for cash crops and spices. Mostly mixed cropping is practiced in plains that grow food crops and farmers actually refrain from planting trees because if the land is small the food crops won't be able to get enough sunlight
@@aleenaprasannan2146 Yes, there is a great variety of agroforestry and not all of them are beneficial for the eco system. Sometimes they use a lot of water intensive crops which can be problematic in regions with water scarcity
Traditional family farms had small fields divided by trees. Some sunlight was lost, but erosion and water loss was limited. Trees, of course, need CO2. You don't have to believe climate hysteria to see the benefits. A few degrees of heat would make Canada and Russia more fertile, reduce the use of heating fuel, and increase biodiversity. Warmth is life.
Need to also check out permaculture. If we combined these two. Plus if we get serious about dual generation plants (electricity and water desalination at the same time) with modern nuclear (especially modular) we could regreen deserts into productive green spaces.
Those are very happy looking chickens! When they are too tightly packed or in cages they will pluck each others feathers, all those chickens still have their feathers and are even trusting enough to walk up to the reporter, this is ethical farming!
Intensive agriculture is not an enemy, it is overall the only mass scale solution to feed 7 billion people. But in EU, we have large non-productive areas that could be reforested easily and with low costs. They are called LFA or ANC. There the farmers keep cows, goats or sheep with low intensity or till the land with very low yields. But they get very high subsidies compared to normal productive farmers to "compensate" them for bad agricultural conditions. This entire enterprise does not make sense. Taxpayers have to fund farming that is not productive and not only that, farming that inhibits reforestation of these areas. Back in 19th century, with their lack of machinery and chemistry, it was necessary for people to pasture sheep high in mountains and thus accelerate erosion there. Likewise in Spain, Italy, Greece, Croatia and the Alps. But today, it is no longer a necessity. It is more less a hobby - to continue to disturb nature.
The best way to save the planet is to stop eating animals. Cry as you may, the fact is you don’t need that protein. You just want it. You just love the taste of it. You have memories associated with the juicy taste of meat and addictive creaminess of dairy and cheese. I get that. It's hard to forgo all of that. But there will be no tomorrow to cherish those memories if we cling to meat. Let’s be compassionate and stop eating animals. That alone should cut off emissions by 50%. Animals get their protein from plant and you by eating the animals. You just need to figure out the combination of plant-based food that works best for you. Going vegan doesn't mean eating lettuce all day (that's unhealthy). Explore the alternatives. Take baby steps. Slowly replace animal products with plant products one by one.
The best is actually, as shown in this video, to integrate animal and vegetal farming together. If you want to be vegan, then that's a good thing as you help society as a whole to reduce its meat consumption, but thinking that 100% of the population should be vegan is simply wrong. We must eliminate big scale industrial meat production, but we must not all become 100% vegan. I can explain everything in more details if you wish
Hey....Johan from India here...love how you're highlighting agroforestry and biodiversity (also catering to to the Indian viewers in your vids) using age old agriculture/farming knowledge/wisdom to change and protect livelihoods in our modern capitalistic society. My main reason for commenting is this: how does adding a water body (pond/lake) enhance the environmental impacts?
Agricultural in it's current form is destroying the planet... But they won't change because they'd lose money (or think they will). So they don't bother. Their greed and lack of concern will destroy the planet. I applaud this guy's efforts though. And his willingness to put that kind of money into a that system.
Hilly areas should be left as grass and grazed by cattle and sheep. pasture land in the UK has been proved to be the most fertile and the grass takes up CO2. No till reduces the CO2 anyway. A lot of farmers in the UK are replanting hedge row and turning headland turning areas into wild flower/grass areas. Taking soil samples from all the different areas of a farm in fact shows the pasture land running beef cattle as the best on the farm. Check out the programs on Harry's Farms channel for more information.
That reporter's accent is so fun - you can tell that he tries _really hard_ to not sound too German, but it comes through left and right. Especially his speech pattern/melody, his "E"s and "A"s (as in pronouncing hens as "hans"), and pluralization of chickens as "chicken"! 😅 Interesting report though!
Back in the 80's. I read a newspaper article promoting the planting of cork trees in California. Cork is an alternative to some uses of plastic. In describing the production of cork in the Extemadura region in Spain, the article noted that beef cattle grazed under the cork trees. A win-win. Why doesn't California farm cork trees? If they had planted them forty years ago, the trees would be mature by now.
Do you think agroforestry would be a good solution in your region as well?
Depending on how its done.
None native trees Depending on there demand can be bad.
Example vages pine tree 3 inches of rain a year cactus.
It also depends on there soil some trees will love it and mybe take over and become invasive if not checked or it mybe so bad for that kind of tree you'll spend most of you're time and money keeping it alive.
I'm in vages my best way mesquite trees and none native baobab trees.
My soil is 70% clay 25% limestone 5% sand and soil ph 8.2 so really bad.
Holds water well but most trees can't take this so native trees work and desert trees that live in similar like soil around the world to pick from.
yeah. I live in America and what America does will impact everywhere else.
It's a good solution.
But depends a lot of layout and management. Because it's less linear than the conventional agriculture and more holistical.
Agroecology it's the sience of the future!🤠
Hugs from Brasil!
Carbon dioxide isnt the cause of climate change. All the planet's are going through changes right now. Its way more complicated. But agro forestry with royal empress is best
@Kakashi Tragic chickens go to the coop on their own. Youve never had chickens
One important point missed is agro forestry increases the water table underground and prevents flooding and rainfall pattern stabilises from sudden cloud bursts to drizzling rain so the soil with help of trees gets time to absorb the water and prevents floods and inturn draughts in the summer which is experienced in tropical countries
Wow
Not only that but it’s also been shown to help reverse the build up of salt in the soil in dry places like Australia, caused by years of irrigation from mineral rich ground water. Something that can otherwise lead to the land reverting to desert
This is what a world without punctuations would look like.
Water at soil level take a millenia to reach the water table...
@@coonskinniggs Yeah, it's pretty confusing but I understood.
This is common practice with smallholder farmers in Indonesia as shade crops. Great to see this being explored for implementation in big-scale industrial farming
Combining global experiences with, for instance, farming, is probably the greatest strength of the current human civilization.
di eropa skala segitu mah masih terbilang smallholder farm bang,
beda sama di indonesia
daerah mana bang?
I don't think this is being done for industrial farming. Hard to believe that chickens go from barely being able to move to such free roaming chickens. Any little bit helps though.
Also here in the US. I am one of them.
I really appreciate the realistic presentation, talking about the up and down sides. Real-world applications. I've done this with chickens, and its a real obvious tactic in raising chickens and ducks
We do this here in central MN. It’s always been seen as the norm you don’t see a lot of completely cleared fields. Large industrial farming is super problematic. You need balance.
What is MN?
@@macmarc6661 Minnesota
That's awesome! Smarter and better farming methods
@@namelesskat4814 I am now myself learning that the whole world watches these videos.
Publicly traded companies only need money.
Agro-Forestry is part of the regenerative agroculture... It's amazing to hear how farmers that implemented these practices could transform their lands, and how they can produce cheaper food in a more environment friendly way
Cheaper maybe a good side effect, but to me the core is that the food itself may become more healthy. You saw those chickens, right? They looked very healthy in comparison to what we have seen other socalled farmers have done to them only so we can get "cheap" meat, but often also unhealthy with lots of antibiotica in their system and having to endure painful procedures where their beaks were clipped so they would not hurt each other pecking in overcrowded spaces.
I'm honestly the happiest for the chickens, compared to the meat-grinders that industrialized farming has become this is awesome.
Cheaper food? The US government fixes food prices forcing farmers to throw food away
These farmers do not produce cheaper foods.
It would be more expensive this way.
Ernst Götsch applied an even better concept called syntropic agriculture: he's a Swiss who came to Brazil in 1980 and since then applied it to our lands. His concepts are fascinating, do some searches to find out the amazing things this man did.
We are big fans of Ernsts work as well 👍
I just saw that on Globo Rural show.
Will seek out this information now. Thanks for sharing.
I'm actually impressed they made this video without even mentioning Ernst Götsch!
His agroforestry system is undoubtedly one of the most effective methods, similarly to the practices of Brazilian indigenous communities, which have been honed over millennia.
Proud Agroforestry Instructor/faculty here in the Philippines.
😇Cheers!
I'm a Agroforestry student
From Philippines
Awesome
@@carlorjustcarl3675 anong school?
lets be real m8 this sht won't work in south east asia
I utilize Agroforestry, Permaculture gardening, Aquaculture with my ponds, and rotating grazing with multi species and incorporate all of it together symbiotic in a way. Part of the rotation is in the forest, ducks rotate ponds go in gardens to get snails and slugs and in orchard, manure goes compost for garden, etc
My mom's village is located in a jungle, so naturally their farms have a similar style farm like this.. free range chickens running smock between the bamboo trees. Problem is, the family wants to cook us city folks a big dinner.. took them 3 days to actually find the chicken. they run so fast lol
can confirm chickens are fast as hell bc one of my gran's chickens hates me and every time i go over to help her that damn chicken runs after me.
Thats what happens when they dont feed the chikens on a regular basis, we have a bucket where we throw in all the organic waste and throw it to the chickens every day, that keeps them always close to us
Could build a small enclosure with wattle (sticks woven, either as living plants or dried sticks or blend. Tall enough to walk in, catch them inside
How many different types of trees? Are there orangutans and other wild animals?
@@موسى_7 no.. it's mostly old bamboo forest near the beach, hence why it was so difficult to put fences around your house. most wild animals we found on the village were birds, snakes and lizzards.. oh and the whatever it was that the villagers used to raised and now lost..
Im going to be doing something similar on a small scale (1.25 to 1.5 acres); building a micro-biome in the form of a botanical orchard and garden. These videos always help add lines of thought to my planning process.
Have you considered fruit or nut trees for your tree lines?
Also have you considered cover crops? Especially to plant your trees into? for better soil and add nitrogen with legumes and save having to hoe and added food for hens? I see you planted wild flowers but how about before you plant trees, not just a year later?
And for all your crop land cover crop / regenerative methods?
Who are you trying to message?
@@garethbaus5471 the farmers in the vid and the folks who made it. ... and anyone interested
The video obviously has limitations - it would be great to see a range of systems - but goes to see an enthusiastic convert 👍
Fruit and nut trees would have high water requirements. An important thing in farming is you have the crop, and the supplementary plants. Fruit and nuts would likely compete too much with crops, be labour intensive and not as rewarding as you'd think unless placed well and irrigated. So unless they have two or three fruit trees for fun, it won't happen. Complementary gardening is a thing, but it is complicated and labour intensive, more for a space limited gardener without machines than it is for farmland.
@@j.kaimori3848 well yes but they can also turn a nice profit. But given your restraints, a row of pecan could be just as easy, same water, and competition as any other tree, and you can get nuts.
I was about to say it not modern but ancient technique of farming. It is being done in many poorer states or countries now too. This technique helps in providing portfolio of agricultural products for those small farmers.
It was fun about 6 1/2 minutes in watching the younger fella try to keep up with the older guy moving the soil. That older gentleman is probably tougher than nails
Most of it is the method used not the strength, I worked in tunnelling and when forming a mining gang would steer well clear of the gym fit guys, they are great for 10 mins but have no stamina, the the 160 lb guys keep going shovelling all day. A steady pace gets the job done.
I wonder why the farmer is doing the job better than the journalist
He's gotten 19 generations to perfect his craft
Those damn city dwellers
My main concern with this is the emphasis on poplar trees. I understand they were chosen because of their quick growth rate. But planting so many poplars, and only poplars, is no different than monoculture.
One step at a time my friend. At least they've started.
Here in Brasil, Agroforestry is start being used in some live-stock farms. It's search by the Embrapa, a public company of agriculture.
Grow trees that can later be cut for lumber. Keeps CO2 emissions down.
Not really.... Its depends if this is a real forster or just monoculture
@@mihiec Yes really, he's comparing it to (as stated in the video) their intended use being to be cut down and burned as firewood. A small on site saw mill using renewables as a power supply milling them, into at the very least rough lumber, would drastically reduce that carbon emission.
@@mihiec ah yes monoculture. The imbeciles approach to diversity.
I reckon biochar would be the best use of small batches of wood. It's a decent side hustle
In my country Bangladesh 🇧🇩 it's already practiced everywhere 😊😊
Here farmers free their hens, cows, goats in the early morning they feed all day long and at evening all of them come to their home. It makes the feeding cost lower 👍👍
Even if you don't believe in man-made global warming this is the play.
Although you are still an ignorant person in that case. But yes, this is a refreshing approach to farming.
@@ericotten3034 yep the ignorant wouldn't even watch this though , they are probably watching some conspiracy bullshit or a video on how to how to believe right wing propaganda bullshit , or three steps to staying ignorant ,denying the facts and burying your head in the sand
@@sprintershepherd4359 believe it or not a lot of people care about the environment they just also want limited government (limited authority)
@@sprintershepherd4359 I love how someone who doesn't agree with the government controlling everything is a right wing conspiracy theorist. Obviously the government control of some things is necessary. In many cases it is not, and people do it better on their own. A good example is how major corporations buy politicians on both sides of the aisle, all around the world and a blind eye is turned while they either skirt or flat out ignore environmental laws. Small farmers however don't have millions of acres of land, so they can't afford to destroy it. They are also more ethical in most cases. You can support them by buying locally produced goods. There is just one simple way that a small government person can help the environment while leftist politicians and the government don't. Communists destroyed the environment at a faster rate than had ever happened in human history.
trust me, i've been working in factory farming for years,
big farm corp won't give a sht to this until it's proven to be profitable
I like how they keep giving names or new names to systems that have been there and happening naturally for thousands of years
Think of why so many breeds of crops and livestock are extinct now and even forgotten.
The scientists and practitioners of agroforestry don't claim that it's a new practice. And giving it a name makes sense, since how else would you classify something if it had no name?
@@Black.Spades This. And also repackaging things seems to get people more interested, almost like they cared more about the associated marketing instead of the actual methods.
That's called language. We assign words to things so we can communicate with each other about them.
Well, you gotta call it something right?
Now these chickens look healthy. If i had the choice in the supermarket due to a visuel que, a sign defining this type of method, i would buy meat and eggs from them over most other methods currently available. Well maybe if you have privatly access to an even smaller farm, but this comes quite close to such.
Our problem is not with these medium sized farmers though, but with even bigger farms. Some of these fields shown, others have machinery where these fields would just be sufficient to change direction ^^, not even to start how chickens are being held from some socalled farmers. But yes i am glad that some farmers are rethinking their approach. I hope other farmers will look at this and maybe find something that would work for them.
or farmers who only care about money and not the soil, environment and how to improve theyr farm
Oklahoma soil conservation districts have gotten ahead of this. Lots of fields that were plowed under have been returned to trees, and they field cows amongst them.
Alot of people call that silvopasture I think
@@Grognarthebarb Nothing like some USDA Grade A bullshit to aid your pasture and grove.
@@torg2126 can you explain dude. I just said i think. Is there a reason your this hostile
@@Grognarthebarb USDA grade A cattle produce USDA grade A cow shit.
@@Grognarthebarb Correct. The USDA definition of silvopasture is the deliberate integration of trees and grazing livestock operations on the same land
I do this on my property. I have my crops, my chickens and trees. The soil is better through the years now. It used to be pretty poor quality
Fun fact: the highest quality of Iberian Ham comes from agroforestry, with iberian pigs that are raised among sparse oak forests.
Don't know how reliable it is with the low land density it has though.
Reliable enough to foster and provide a well renowned premium meat one can imagine.......
Piggies love acorns
It’s a shame that the EU keeps on supporting industrial agriculture instead of favouring those best practices.
Industrial agriculture is the only solution to feed people. If you want to protect nature, cancel LFA/ANC subsidies and let the Alps, Spain etc to be naturally reforested in those areas. Low intensity sheep or cow pastures just disturb nature and produce next to nothing. And the taxpayers have to pay for it.
I know there are a lot of different German dialects across Germany, Austria and Switzerland but I find this (the presenter's) German English accent very cute 😍
Northern German, Not really a Dialekt
@Jo Mama the accent depends on the dialect, Bavaria people have a different english accent then people from Hamburg or saxony
@@Tischlerimkopf Seriously? It _totally_ is its own dialect! Plus, the original poster was commenting on the guy's German accent in *English* - which comes through quite heavily, as much as he tries to sound American...ish... 😅
@@JK-dx4ob Hochdeutsch ist ja wohl normales Deutsch... Wie n Hamburger zu reden ist nicht abgewandelt genug für n Dialekt, Hessisch oder Bayrisch ist n Dialekt... Ich bin zwar kein Linguist aber er spricht doch sehr Hochdeutsch oder?
@@JK-dx4obEr spricht auf jeden Fall ein sehr gutes Englisch, auch wenn er versucht amerikanisch zu klingen.
Great content and an awesome presentation.
I would love to see more of such content on DW Planet A. My suggestion would be to make a video about Agrivoltaic, the combination of solar photovoltaic and farming on the same plot of land. The Fraunhofer ISE is engaged in a research project at Heggelbach or BayWa and Next2sun who are very active in the Agri PV bussines.
Thank you Meerkat Hero for your comment! Let's see what we can do on this topic.
Yes!! I understand there have been some interesting academic studies in Germany on the topic
@@thebusthatcouldntslowdown3612 Well, the Fraunhofer ISE is on the academic side, whereas BayWa and Next2Sun are cooperations who build commercial systems in the agri sector.
I haven't heard this before, seems interesting 😊😊
If you deep ripped the ground through the clay base where you are going to plant the trees, the roots will go deep and you wont have the competiton on the surface for water. So you can then sow a dozen different grass and forage seed mixes for the surface This will pump tons of carbon into the soil and give the hens plenty to eat, plus you will have a lot more micro biology happening in the soil.
This is by no means "Agroforestry".
Growing a row of a single type of tree is not agroforestry. Its called "Mixed culture". And this is one of the least efficient ones.
Lol I was thinking something similar. That's a wind courtain. Agroforestry would be something like avocado and cocoa trees combined with platain all at the same time.
Or growing trees of precious wood while growing grass for cows among them.
I cannot believe my eyes - just about all tree growers know that mulching not only helps manage weed growth, it also turbo-boosts soil fertility. Trees that are mulched grow appreciably faster and healthier.
The farmer does not use regenerative agriculture. He is basically farming on dead soil.
I'm in the US in a city suburb and I do this. I have about a third of an acre. About a quarter is a mature food forest of native fruit and nut trees + the chickens/ coop. The trees also provide shade for the chickens in the summer so it's usually about 15 degrees F cooler there. The rest of the yard is permacultured fruit and nut trees pruned small/ shrubs/ berries + annual veggie plants. I don't sell my crops, but do grow about half of our annual food needs. It's very satisfying and most of my plants have come from shared seed/ plants/ cuttings so the costs were very low..
If the trees are used to heat homes they still offset the co2 production from heating homes.
Thank you for sharing! Agroforestry, agroecology, syntropic farming, and permaculture - many names for the same thing, but ALL AMAZING!!! Thank you for sharing!!
Similar yes but not the same. syntropic farming is agroforestry but agroforestry isn't automatically syntropic farming. You know that but this clarification is for thos who don't know that yet.
Dear reader please go and research the differences and share these amazing ways of transforming and healing the soil
@@ploggerei9428
Thank you so much, sir
We have been doing this in our backyards for ages in Africa. They called it subsistence, they called it peasantry, they called it backward. We did not do it on a large scale, but every homestead had trees and animals (chickens, goats cows and sheep). Its nothing new, but its just funny how things comeback in circle.
People did this in Slovakia and Hungary for generations.
No please just keep making these videos they’re great!👍
Cheers!
We didn't plant new trees on the farm, we just didn't cut them down. Our animals, chickens and all, ran out during the day eating natural with night grain feeding as supplementation. Trees make the area cooler and control wind. They provide natural leaf mulch and shade for animals.
It works good when one farm have a large farm. In Ukraine we used to have same approach in a farming. Now this idea is having issue with an ownership. A farmer doesn’t want to decrease their fields by adding trees into them. And also a boards of the fields a pretty thin so nobody wants to add the trees there, they just want to have a larger field and want to have a profit today.
It saves money in the long term. You have better yield (which means higher price) less money on watering, less money of chicken feed, less money/hours on labour, less fertiliser, wind protection etc. It really does save money, time and effort. Plus you can make the trees whatever you want. Like fruit or nut trees. Plus having wildflowers in the tree line attracts wild bees which means way better pollination, again.. Bigger & healthier crops
@@biancat7761 I agree with your point, but it works great in a long term strategy, but poor countries like ours have a very unstable economy which do not allow to plan business activities in a long term.
@@dimayerebakan5803 Im Not sure what an unstable economy has to do with land management?
But having stable, strong and reliable crops allows you to plan when things are good and when things are bad. Growing food is a great stabiliser in a country.
Im not gonna act like this is gonna fix the economy, but it's a great way to grow meat, fruit and vegetables and firewood in a cheaper way long term. But if you feel defeated before giving something a go,, we'll not much anyone can do for you.
@@biancat7761 Stable economy means that the entrepreneurs can invest in a long term. As for now, speaking about the Ukraine entrepreneurs currently need to return their investment in 1-2 years and start getting money and I'm not sure that this kind of approach allows them to do this.
@@dimayerebakan5803 of course! Well, there is always options! People in crazy situations have to come up with crazy solutions.
A really good windbreak and fast returns could be bamboo, the bunching kind.
It's very fast growing and it's very popular so you can sell it easily. It's very versatile.
Just look at where your climate is, and also find out what originally grew in that area if you can.
If something is broken and your current system isnt helping you, of the government isn't offering support, you gotta get your thinking caps on!
Ein sehr schönes Beispiel dafür, wie sich mittelständige Landwirte zukunftsfähig aufstellen.
Der Nutzen für alle wird immens sein!
Bleibt zu hoffen, dass die Aufgeschlossenheit gegenüber diesen Methoden weiter wächst und sich industrielle Agrarkonzerne mit ihrer Landschaftszerstörung selbst abschaffen werden.
3:35 Dude speaks English to the German hen. Bruh moment
The emissions of farm animals could be reduced even further if they were fed algae. I read somewhere that cattle whose food mix contains 1% algae emit way less methane (but more CO2). Also, if algae farming for biofuel, animal feed, and maybe even human cuisine gets big enough it can offset a heck of a lot of CO2 emissions.
Feeding hens is very different from feeding larger animals like cows/sheeps etc. - their (chicken) main source of carbon output is really the source of what they eat and that they poop. By themselves they already are very efficient with this. On other terms you gotta be carefull what to feed your hens, because they for example can`t burp.
@@Mitnixbinichfroh o
tbf I don't think the hen understands German
It`s reinventing the wheel - what`s been known for thousands of ages.
Apogeum of forest-farms was in the Middle-ages.
Fields were gradually interlocking with forests - and various crops were planted on these areas.
Forests were planted - there are barely any natural forests in Western Europe.
Apart from planting specific trees, there were planting berry bushes, patches of herbs, fruit plants and trees, vegetables. Animals were pasteured - chickens, goats mostly.
Now, they are trying to make it something fancy and hip, but it was all just normal for older generations.
We've been doing this in the Philippines for years now. Along rice paddies trees are planted as livestock feed in dry month when most grass is already dry. Trees such as madre de cacao, ipilipil, and lately mulberry trees are plantedi nthe ridges of fields which separate wide fields into paddies
This Channel is underwatched and underrated! Thanks for your work. Subscribed. 😉
sorry I got triggered when you said trees store CO2... idk if you miss spoke but that's not what happens, the trees absorb CO2 but only stores the carbon (C) and releases the oxygen (O2)
But it comes right back when the tree dies so there's that.
@@BlackJesus8463 that's not true, the wood, bark, leaves, roots, everything in the tree I made of carbon, every living thing is tbh, but in a tree it's quite significant, if a tree dies not everything turns back into gas, and the carbon stays stored for the most part, unless you start burning it ofcourse
@@crazyciler50 The chemical aspects of plant decomposition always involve the release of carbon dioxide. In fact, decomposition contributes over 90 percent of carbon dioxide released each year.
@@BlackJesus8463 yes of course, but not as much as was absorbed in the first place…
@@BlackJesus8463 And that's my reason for looking at wood furniture, utensils or anything. Because when you are using that wood instead of letting is rot, you are helping in keeping that sequestered for more years.
Also, if the wood rots and the decomposition happens underground, then the methane and CO2 is not release into the atmosphere and that is what matters. CO2 or methane in atmospheric or water is what contributes to global warming, those that are subsurface is still in a sequestered form.
i watched a video about aquaponics recently and have come to 1 obvious conclusion. Using land for multiple purposes is efficient
ahem.
don’t sell it as ‘eco-friendly’ as in climate change.
sell it as creating a sustainable microbiome that improves agricultural use.
farmers have economic survival issues that overshadow completely any ‘thurnburg concerns’.
Why not both. Consumers like climate change friendly.
@Maniae Official
because the ones that would ‘buy’ this approach are the food producers, not the consumers.
As far as harvesting the trees. You should stagger the planting, which in turn will stagger the harvesting. You want to avoid removing an entire swath of trees in one swoop for the sake of short-term efficiency or profit.
The trees could also be coppiced if possible instead of killed. If it is a variety of tree that responds well to coppicing
Hey, does anyone have offial data about global greenhouse gas emission? Would be cool if you shared a link👍🏼
I know the IPCC reports are the most trusted, but I don’t have a direct link on me
@@jacobbarbulescu6654 Okay thanks I will look it up
Also try searching for a website called 'our world in data'.
@@banksarenotyourfriends thanks
World in Data is what we use most of the time
So reduce the field size and plant trees? Wow, what a brilliant idea. The person who thought of this must be a genius!
Been learning a lot from this channel. Such great and beautifully presented content!
Hell yes subtitles instead of dubbing! Thanks!
If you turn every farm into an agro forest, the cost of harvesting and maintaining will rise significantly as machinery vehicles will not be able to traverse easily (inefficiency), a process which will likely revert back to the more expensive manual labor. This rising cost will reflect down the supply chain at the consumer end with food inflation.
This DW documentary mentioned the inefficiency and asked the question _why not turn every farm_ , yet avoided stating this is no-brainer of a consequence.
I gotta start planing more trees in my garden. Not only as it offers shelter and shade for chickens but also it acts as a wind protection
My knowledge of poplar's is that they are a weed tree. We've had some big ones cut down here because they grew too large and dangerous to be near houses and then just about everywhere the shoots sprung up. It's a pretty neat system though.
A weed is only a "weed" if it's going somewhere you don't want.
The best part was combining agroforestry with modern machinery, reducing labour costs while still being sustainable.
A good way to minimize the amount of land that it takes up against the trees would be to use a form of above ground for me, for instants container gardening however you would upscale that with much larger rows perhaps made out of concrete or stone,Which would hold plants that are completely harvestable above the soil level of the trees and allow for plants to be grown closer to the trees and for the trees to still get all the beneficial effects of having the ground covered close to them as in a forest which will also hold moisture.
You've never seen an actual farm, have you? That's not a feasible solution at all.
@@frankjameson4889 Imagine a large parking house style farm with artificial lighting systems, precise artificial watering systems aso.
Could work. It ain’t cheap whatsoever but it could be extremely efficient and maximize a lot more space.
Ausgezeichnet! Thank goodness for subtitles, the 4 years of German I took in High School failed me!
It's so misguided to use carbon emission as the solo metric, the real benefits include biomass to the soil, temperature control, layers of vegetation, etc. I really hope people wake up and start to understand more about our carbon cycle instead of focusing blindly on one metric.
@@bobjohnson7020 I'm curious as to how the carbon impact of a tree is calculated. I truly don't know.
We have a small farm, about 245 acres, most of which is steep hills and deep hollows, and only the flatter areas and bottoms are used as fields. The rest is forest, which we manage to keep it healthy. In our garden, we companion plant and have clover sown between the rows - this keeps the soil moist, puts nitrogen into the soil that the vegetables often take out, and prevents erosion. The flowers also feed bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Some crops are grown at the edge of the forest, particularly those which like partial shade, and we have chickpeas, amaranth, and other crops sown up one of the hollows. We also rotate pasture for the livestock, allowing grazed land time to recover and making sure that we have deep-rooted native grasses which hold soil, retain water, and grow back quickly. We are always looking for ways to improve what we're doing.
Small farm... 245acres?! Is it legal to own such a huge farm there where you live?!
Dude in my country, Poland, an average farm is 23acres...
@@krakendragonslayer1909 Here in the US any farm under 1K acres is considered small. Plus while we have a bit of land, most of it is steep hills and deep hollows that are not arable so they remain forested to hold the soil and protect the watershed.
Also, I'm not a dude but a dudette.
@@allisonshaw9341 in my nation, among 1 400 000 farmers there are only 800 farms with area of more than 1000k acres ;) BTW. only areable land is counted, no forests, sands, rocks etc.
I am experimenting on my garden, basic rule is no monoculture, i got lots of 🐝
In India especially along Western Ghats we grow abundant mango jackfruit and cashew trees along with paddy.
This could be a godsend here in the high desert of the Basin and Range country of the western US.
This video gave me hope for the future of our planet. 🍀
My Grandpa was doing this his entire life. And so did many others but big scale farms were more profitable.
Powerful solution no 1: scale back drastically
Solution no 2: animal ag that sticks can be regenerative or agroforestry.
Great. But why does this farmer has so much soil without any cover crops and in addition it seems that he uses tillage. Whatever he captures via the trees, he more then 100x offsets ( basically canceling his CO2 sequestration ) by tilling the land and exposing the top nutrient reach hummus layer to the Solar radiation to kill.
Thanks for this video! I really appreciate the work being done towards sustainable agriculture. I am suprised by how this helps biodiversity and the climate. Just one reccomendation, I think it is better to not only grow one crop but also many others. Thanks!
farmers have kept trees next to their land for generations though, not special
industrial monocrops
Industrial monocropping varies. Most of the time trees are kept as boundary layers, indicators of bad ground to farm, used as a natural disease/insect barrier, or markers for aerial applicators. None of them use trees for reasons agriforestry use them.
All people talk about is how much farmers pollute but nobody talks about the fact that during the summer, crops in the US are doing more photosynthesis than the Amazon rain forest so crops also help cool as well!
Nice info and I hope this video is translated into multiple languages to spread the awareness 👍💐😊
Glad to see, people in Germany start adopting agroforestry. And good video, but what is not mentioned is the soil for carbon sequestration! Healthy forest or grassland soil contains a massive amount of biodiversity, that is converted to organic substances (humic acids), that contain a lot of carbon. When the soil is disturbed each year for grain crops, like in European style agriculture, this carbon is released into the air together with destruction of the biodiversity. Industrialization of this process lead first to deforestation and is an ongoing process of soil mining, that leads to the total loss of topsoil in the end! Look at the Middle East, there were great civilizations there once... Now it's mostly barren. In Europe and the US we are in the process of creating just that in a couple of hundred years...
To reverse that, we need an agriculture that improves the soil, meaning it is covered with plants and to get away from grasses as main crops. All the grain species are grasses, pioneer plants that only grow well on bare soil.
To be efficient, we need an industrial agriculture, that works with ecosystems, not just with single crops. Planting and harvesting efficiency probably will go down a bit with each additional species that is incorporated in the system, but it will increase resiliency. A healthy balance will be somewhere in the middle between a monoculture and a forest, meaning agroforestry...
I'm German too btw, hence the long post ^^.
I believe in the end its all about being more self aware and accountable of our actions. To find this balance in the world we must diversify our minds.
For those regions where planting a forest strip isn't viable, plant grasses, shrubs and perennials. They may not help as much with the wind or shade, but they will still have great effects.
Plz make videos with the aspect ratio 20:9
1. The problem is not the "sucking out" (0:36) of "all the nutrients". Would be great if it would be that way. The Problem is the leaching of nutrients from the topsoil (especially N) and the fixation of nutrients in the soil (especially P in tropical soils). In both cases the nutrients are not available for the plants that is the problem. What you want is uptake of nutrients by the plant. You want a high nutrient efficiency. 2. Agroforestry can help to recycle nutrients from the subsoil by their deeper root system. And they can decrease leaching by maintaining vegetation during fallow periods. Consequently, agroforestry can increase the nutrient efficiency. But I think this is not really true for temperate regions, since in the winter time trees do not take up nutrients, so they are still leached. But it is true for tropical regions with fallow periods during the dry season.
Hey Benedikt! Yes, nitrous oxide is a huge problem that is often forgotten about. We tackle it in this video 👉ruclips.net/video/47AJuaYPvJI/видео.html
@@DWPlanetA Indeed N2O is a problem. But I wasn't talking about N2O emissions in my comment. Feels like I am chatting with a chat bot. 🤣
Would love to see more videos on Germany's agroforestry efforts
It's being done all over the world, now... so it's not even a question...
This example that your showing here isn't being done in the way they used to thousands of yrs firstly indigenous forestry doesn't use animals in this way also they literally lived in forests, with thousands of different tress, plants, and edible medicinal weeds, these indigenous people ate plants and only wild animals.
Thank you for your comment celestial cow, but we are not talking exclusively about indigenous people. Our main example is this very farm in Germany and how it successfully farms with this variation. This form of agriculture can then be applied everywhere else in the world - as far as the conditions allow it.
Hey Celestial, cheers for your comment:) I produced the video. You're right: This is not the way it has been practiced centuries ago, but we differentiate in our history segment a little (5:35). It's the modern adaptation of agroforestry that can be used on an industrial scale (large farming machinery), but still offers some advantages over conventional farming. Of course, this system of agroforestry is used in countries where it is more fragmented like India (8:50). In these countries the agroforestry systems are probably more similar to the systems that have been established centuries or even thousands of years ago (eg. indian hom gardens)
@@kaisteinecke8034 Hey I'm from Kerala in South India and the pictures you showed were probably from here. This way of multiteired agroforestry is usually done in the hilly highlands here mostly for cash crops and spices. Mostly mixed cropping is practiced in plains that grow food crops and farmers actually refrain from planting trees because if the land is small the food crops won't be able to get enough sunlight
@@aleenaprasannan2146 Yes, there is a great variety of agroforestry and not all of them are beneficial for the eco system. Sometimes they use a lot of water intensive crops which can be problematic in regions with water scarcity
Traditional family farms had small fields divided by trees. Some sunlight was lost, but erosion and water loss was limited. Trees, of course, need CO2.
You don't have to believe climate hysteria to see the benefits.
A few degrees of heat would make Canada and Russia more fertile, reduce the use of heating fuel, and increase biodiversity. Warmth is life.
Need to also check out permaculture. If we combined these two.
Plus if we get serious about dual generation plants (electricity and water desalination at the same time) with modern nuclear (especially modular) we could regreen deserts into productive green spaces.
Those are very happy looking chickens! When they are too tightly packed or in cages they will pluck each others feathers, all those chickens still have their feathers and are even trusting enough to walk up to the reporter, this is ethical farming!
I'm way ahead of you. I have trees growing around my patio container garden.
Intensive agriculture is not an enemy, it is overall the only mass scale solution to feed 7 billion people. But in EU, we have large non-productive areas that could be reforested easily and with low costs. They are called LFA or ANC. There the farmers keep cows, goats or sheep with low intensity or till the land with very low yields. But they get very high subsidies compared to normal productive farmers to "compensate" them for bad agricultural conditions. This entire enterprise does not make sense. Taxpayers have to fund farming that is not productive and not only that, farming that inhibits reforestation of these areas. Back in 19th century, with their lack of machinery and chemistry, it was necessary for people to pasture sheep high in mountains and thus accelerate erosion there. Likewise in Spain, Italy, Greece, Croatia and the Alps. But today, it is no longer a necessity. It is more less a hobby - to continue to disturb nature.
The best way to save the planet is to stop eating animals. Cry as you may, the fact is you don’t need that protein. You just want it. You just love the taste of it. You have memories associated with the juicy taste of meat and addictive creaminess of dairy and cheese. I get that. It's hard to forgo all of that. But there will be no tomorrow to cherish those memories if we cling to meat.
Let’s be compassionate and stop eating animals. That alone should cut off emissions by 50%.
Animals get their protein from plant and you by eating the animals. You just need to figure out the combination of plant-based food that works best for you. Going vegan doesn't mean eating lettuce all day (that's unhealthy). Explore the alternatives. Take baby steps. Slowly replace animal products with plant products one by one.
More CO2, more greens!
We have more Co2 now than we did in 1950.
Do you see more greens?
@@shepherds314 yup
you must be living under a mossy rock since you see so much green
The best is actually, as shown in this video, to integrate animal and vegetal farming together. If you want to be vegan, then that's a good thing as you help society as a whole to reduce its meat consumption, but thinking that 100% of the population should be vegan is simply wrong. We must eliminate big scale industrial meat production, but we must not all become 100% vegan. I can explain everything in more details if you wish
Hey....Johan from India here...love how you're highlighting agroforestry and biodiversity (also catering to to the Indian viewers in your vids) using age old agriculture/farming knowledge/wisdom to change and protect livelihoods in our modern capitalistic society. My main reason for commenting is this: how does adding a water body (pond/lake) enhance the environmental impacts?
I think it would improve it greatly, but I don't know how well it works with heavy machines and fertilizer
even the birds have been under the pressure of capitalism it seems, if the naps they take can only be quick 😂
Helping the environment requires advancing technology and systems. Not throwing a ban hammer around
How sick has capitalism made this planet that planting a few trees is seen as a major scientific breakthrough?
This is a great piece of the puzzle to fix the damaged we have caused
In Poland it's often practiced to raise chickens in fruit orchards
please save my children's future, please make the effort like these people. i don't want my children dying from pollution.
Agricultural in it's current form is destroying the planet... But they won't change because they'd lose money (or think they will). So they don't bother. Their greed and lack of concern will destroy the planet.
I applaud this guy's efforts though. And his willingness to put that kind of money into a that system.
Where ever you are learn to grow your own food!!! Its so satisfying
Hilly areas should be left as grass and grazed by cattle and sheep. pasture land in the UK has been proved to be the most fertile and the grass takes up CO2. No till reduces the CO2 anyway. A lot of farmers in the UK are replanting hedge row and turning headland turning areas into wild flower/grass areas. Taking soil samples from all the different areas of a farm in fact shows the pasture land running beef cattle as the best on the farm. Check out the programs on Harry's Farms channel for more information.
That reporter's accent is so fun - you can tell that he tries _really hard_ to not sound too German, but it comes through left and right. Especially his speech pattern/melody, his "E"s and "A"s (as in pronouncing hens as "hans"), and pluralization of chickens as "chicken"! 😅 Interesting report though!
Thanks, we love it too.
Old is gold 👌❤️
Back in the 80's. I read a newspaper article promoting the planting of cork trees in California. Cork is an alternative to some uses of plastic. In describing the production of cork in the Extemadura region in Spain, the article noted that beef cattle grazed under the cork trees. A win-win. Why doesn't California farm cork trees? If they had planted them forty years ago, the trees would be mature by now.
i love how happy those chickens sound
Yes. This is the future. Hopefully in Canada as well 🙏