Agroforestry and the EU Soil Strategy 2030

Agroforestry, as a sustainable land management practice, has been shown to have an important role in improving soil quality and health based on at least four decades of data gathered from the world over. A large body of papers (summarised in Dollinger and Jose 2018 Mayer et al 2022) reaffirms that agroforestry can improve the major measurable soil metrics that define soil health, and show that agroforestry has the ability to (1) enrich soil organic carbon better than monocropping systems, (2) improve soil nutrient availability and soil fertility due to the presence of trees in the system, and (3) enhance soil microbial dynamics, which would positively influence soil health. It is imperative that agroforestry, as part of a multifunctional land-use strategy, should receive increased attention in our policy discussion for the future of soil and soil health.