Agroforestry (AF) is the practice of deliberately integrating woody vegetation (trees or shrubs) with crop and/or animal systems to benefit from the resulting ecological and economic interactions. Existing research performed indicates that appropriate application of AF principles and practices is a key avenue to help the European Union to achieve more sustainable methods of food and fibre production that produce both profits for farmers and environmental benefits. AF is one of the most innovation-prone subjects in today’s agriculture, and its development is a cross-sectoral issue that should involve all landscape users and stakeholders (farmers, foresters, river conservationists, bee-keepers, landscapers, hunting associations, roads & pathways departments...). Efficient innovation in AF implies a tight interaction between fundamental research and on-field practical experience that pioneer farmers (and other field-operators) are acquiring every day, by complementing the most advanced modern knowledge with proven traditional practices. Multi-partner initiatives have been launched here and there to encourage collaborative innovation through pooling of resources, exchanges of views and ideas and risk sharing. Success stories have started to emerge; however there is still a lot to be done with up-scaling and out-scaling of these local promising dynamics, which highlights the importance of empowering and connecting them. This was efficiently done by establishing the AFINET network at European level to reveal, foster, and transfer high-level AF innovations, as well as calling public attention to the on-going agricultural transition. In the end, the AFINET initiative was the start point of greatly contribute to simultaneously increasing productivity and sustainability in agriculture, forestry and rural areas; put in practice insufficiently exploited research results; capture and spread innovative ideas from practices; and close the research and innovation divide in agriculture, forestry and rural areas.
The overall objective of AFINET is the promotion and innovation of European Agroforestry (AF) through the development of a multi-actor interactive and innovation-driven network, based on successful sharing of practical experiences and existing research knowledge, applied to different contexts, climates and agricultural sectors. AFINET created a social network of 1500 farmers across Europe presenting the main AF challenges and innovations to overcome these challenges grouped as technical, economical, educational and environmental. Innovations were grouped in the alive handbook and information can be searched and updated in the knowledge cloud. AFINET is the start poing to modify AF systems design and management in order to increase the agricultural systems production and profitability to promote a sustainable land management throughout Europe.
