UNHIDE Agroforestry booklet 2025.09.22 - Flipbook - Page 33
Anders invites beech saplings to grow tall, to eventually
shade the ground around his sweet chestnut trees to make
harvest easier. The beech crowns will be kept under the
sweet chestnut canopy.
cembra pines have been placed predominantly
in the outer edges. Windbreaks, riparian buffers
and alley cropping are also represented at the
farm.
The Söderslätt is a flat, open landscape, characterized by monocultures of rapeseed, sugarbeets,
barley and wheat with no or few permanent
habitats or green corridors for animals and plants
to spread naturally. A few old, pollarded and now
hollow willow trees along the country roads are
the rare exceptions.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, 90 percent of the wetlands that existed in Southern Sweden have been drained, (which lead to the disappearance of the native stork) and the agricultural
land has been deprived of trees, clearing the way
for large scale farming. With support from subsidies, less profitable arable land and pastures have
been planted with spruce monocultures since the
1960s, profoundly changing the landscapes and
reducing biodiversity.
Examples of endangered species that have historically been part of this landscape, but have been
disadvantaged by the lack of wetlands, meadows
and woody and perennial vegetation are bats,
hedgehogs, weasels, partridge, small birds, butterflies, wild bees, and salamanders.
In 1952, artificial fertilizers were introduced to
farming here. The need for animal manure ceased
and most of the typical southern Sweden farm
buildings with enclosed cowsheds have since
remained empty. “Agriculture and food production at odds with sustainable and rich ecosystems
has been a constantly discussed issue on the farm
since the time of my grandmother’s father, when
industrial agriculture made its entry”, Anders
explains.
With Sweden’s new agricultural policy in 1990/
1991 and Sweden joining the EU in 1995, Swedish food security policy was discontinued. Today
the number of Swedish farms has reduced by 40
times, as they haven’t been able to adapt to central and south European wages and pricing, along
with a shorter growing season. Those who have
survived have been transformed into hundreds of
hectares of specialised units, largely subsidised
by the EU.
In this context, and as the farm land was split up
between Anders and his sisters, too few hectares
