Three days workshop financial tools in the Netherlands
In november 2024, a group of around 10 DigitAF members gathered in Bunnik, the Netherlands,…
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Living Lab profile Type of Living Lab: Advanced Lead partner: LBI – Stichting Louis Bolk Instituut Climatic zone: Atlantic central Type of Agroforestry Systems: Silvoarable, silvopastoral Type of farming: Organic, agroecological, conventional Main challenges: Water quality, climate change Context and experience The Dutch Living Lab exists out of farmers, advisors, policy makers, and value chain actors who are all early adopters and promotors of agroforestry. Most of the farmers are dairy farmers who have initial experience with fodder hedges and/or silvopastoral systems with fruit and nut production as an additional future business model. Key questions and challenges lie with developing tools and data…
Living Lab profile
Type of Living Lab: Advanced
Lead partner: LBI – Stichting Louis Bolk Instituut
Climatic zone: Atlantic central
Type of Agroforestry Systems: Silvoarable, silvopastoral
Type of farming: Organic, agroecological, conventional
Main challenges: Water quality, climate change
Context and experience
The Dutch Living Lab exists out of farmers, advisors, policy makers, and value chain actors who are all early adopters and promotors of agroforestry. Most of the farmers are dairy farmers who have initial experience with fodder hedges and/or silvopastoral systems with fruit and nut production as an additional future business model. Key questions and challenges lie with developing tools and data that can prove the economic feasibility as well as the environmental performance of agroforestry systems.
Main activities to date
The Living Lab has been together several times for tool testing. In three sessions spread over the course of 2024, tools were presented and tested and feedback was collected on usefulness and usability of each tool. The first session was on species selection and system design (AgroforesTreeAdvice, BETULA, RegenWorks), the second on economics and tree performance (Rekenmodel Agroforestry 1.0, INTACT, FarmTree Tool), and the third on carbon and climate (CarboCatch, CARAT). The feedback has been shared with the tool developers for future improvements. The Living Lab leader also hosted a multi-day financial tools workshop in November 2024 to harmonize best-practices across developers of financial tools. A summary of the workshop can be found here: https://digitaf.eu/three-days-workshop-financial-tools-in-the-netherlands/
Next steps and exploitation focus
- Soil sampling at the Living Lab case study farm to examine soil health and carbon sequestration under a silvopasture plot (grassland with trees) versus a control plot (grassland)
- Comparing the results of carbon and climate tools with farm-specific data from the case study farm. One goal is to harmonize data used across these tools to ensure each tool makes comparable estimates. Results can also be used to compare the footprint of a scenario with agroforestry versus a scenario without agroforestry.
- Work together with financial tool developers to answer farm-specific questions from the case study farm. The questions concern: at what scale walnuts are financially viable using which machinery and how much labor; how much wood chips are needed for bedding in the deep litter stable, how many short rotation coppice is required, and what are the financials of this system; what can be expected of future grass production and milk production with increasingly mature trees.
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