UNHIDE Agroforestry booklet 2025.09.22 - Flipbook - Page 20
Lundens’ farm: Silvo-arable, Sweden
LUNDENS’ FARM east of Trollhättan is run by Anders and Annika Lunneryd, and has been in the
family since 1942. Since 1999, the 270 hectares
has been KRAV certified; no chemical pesticides
or artificial fertilizers may be used. Before then
Anders recalls that “the instructions of the pesticides urged me to protect myself with a mask and
gloves. But hares and other animals in my fields
had no advance warning to cover or hide”.
For a long time he pondered using trees in the
field to diversify the production and to increase
agricultural resilience; trees that could photosynthesise even after the cereals had been harvested
and serve as habitat for birds and insects.
The 14 hectares silvo-arable agroforestry/ alley
cropping system was established by Anders and
his son Sven in 2020 on a cereal field, with 38
different varieties of apples, grafted on MM.111
semi-dwarf rootstocks. The apple trees are expected to grow 4-5 metres high and the plan is to
prune them. The trees have so far been heavily
watered. When newly planted, the apple trees
had a hard time caused by desiccation, due to
wind. Moreover, the spring of 2023 was very hot
and dry, and the trees became stressed, ben-
efitting pests such as aphids and codling moths.
So far, the ground under the trees is kept clear of
vegetation, to prevent voles from thriving. When the
trees have become more established, the intention
is to plant other vegetation underneath, although no
decision has been made yet.
NEED FOR NATIVE SPECIES
SOURCED LOCALLY
Within agroforestry, the basic idea is to mimic the
complexity of a living ecosystem, to obtain a selfsustaining food production system. If oversimplifying this functional “architecture”, we risk a monoculture, or an organic orchard design that limits the
benefits of agroforestry. Agroforestry systems are
defined by multiple layers and a structural-, species-, and age diversity, to make the system more
resilient, and this should also apply in an alley cropping system.
Within the group we discussed the Miyawaki (Tiny
Forest) afforestation method, used to restore degraded land on different scales, and its suitability
also when planting hedges or treelines in agro-
