Agroforestry Market Gardening: A Strategic Choice ToImprove Sustainability In Agroecological Transition?

Summary

Agroforestry mixing fruit trees and organic diversified vegetable is currently experiencing strong growth in France. The SMART project aimed to (i) explore the sustainability of these systems, (ii) assess the effects of synergies and competitions generated by agroforestry, as perceived by the farmers. Surveys and observations carried out among farmers showed that these systems were implemented by farms involved in short food supply chains. Diversification of products was therefore a central justification for the intercropping of fruit trees and shrubs with vegetables. The majority of farmers considered that intercropping fruit trees and vegetables did not create a problem for workload organisation or competition. Their certainty in this respect was rather limited, given the generally short duration of their experience. A global assessment of their satisfaction integrating technical, agronomic, environmental or socio-economical dimensions (see results) led most of them to consider that the choice of agroforestry was fully justified and could be recommended to other market gardeners. These results showed the need, when evaluating such systems, to adopt dynamic and holistic viewpoint on the different performance levels, allowing to consider the evolution of the trade-offs between pros/cons of such systems on the long-term basis.