Abstract/Summary

Silvoarable systems have the potential to be an effective and productive form of sustainable agriculture, in part due to the enhancement of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. However, currently there is limited understanding of how higher biodiversity in silvoarable systems promotes ecosystem services, such as pest regulation, pollination and nutrient cycling (for example, see Peng et al. 1993; Thevathasan and Gordon 2004; Varah et al. 2013), versus ecosystem disservices, such as encouraging certain pests and weeds (Griffiths et al. 1998; Burgess et al. 2003), and, furthermore, how this cost-benefit ratio might change with how the system is designed, managed and matures over time (but see Burgess et al 2003; Stamps et al. 2009). This paper reports on preliminary results of a cost effectiveness analysis based on the FarmSAFE model (Graves et al. 2011; 2016), as part of a PhD investigating how management of silvoarable influences biodiversity-derived ecosystem services, and their economic implications. Our study is focussed on silvoarable systems in the UK that combine top-fruit production with arable alley-cropping, which are emerging as a promising design with limited shade effects (Smith et al. 2016). We compare our findings to a monocropped arable system, with and without purported associated biodiversity benefits (Varah et al. 2013, 2015).