Agroforestry as renegerative farming

Agroforestry can be a regenerative farming practice depending on the outcomes of the management. Regenerative farming practices which improve soil health and support biodiversity are at the core of regenerative farming. Regenerative farming restores soil health and supports biodiversity.

Tanja Kähkönen¹, Michael den Herder¹ & Joshua Finch²

¹Euroopan metsäinstituutti, ²Novia-ammattikorkeakoulu

Regenerative farming aims at restoring ecosystems

The reasoning for regenerative agriculture stems from agriculture and food systems being in crisis with declining soil health, decreasing biodiversity, and reducing crop yields and farm profitability. Agroforestry can be a regenerative farming practice depending on the outcomes of the management. Regenerative farming practices which improve soil health and support biodiversity are at the core of regenerative farming. This can be done both export-oriented and by advancing local and regional self-sufficiency of farm and food systems. As a result, more sustainable agriculture and food systems from environmental and socioeconomic perspectives could be achieved. Although some of the regenerative farming practices are considered good farming practices also in conventional agriculture, regenerative farming aims not only to produce food for consumers but in increasing the resilience of agricultural systems in general.

Whereas some of the regenerative farming practices, such as use of green or animal manure, are also familiar in conventional farming, agroforestry as a regenerative farming practice has received, in general, little attention in Finland. This is possibly due to a divide between agricultural and forestry production in terms of policy environment, revenue streams, legislation and, in general, perceptions on combining trees and forests with agricultural crops and/or animals.

Restoring soil health and biodiversity improves not only environmental conditions for crop and animal production but also contributes to socio-economic conditions of farmers in terms of possibilities for increased crop yields, security of crops yields, and reduced monetary inputs, for instance, in terms of pesticides, herbicides, and mineral fertilizers. Applying regenerative farming practices, such as agroforestry, supports farmers to contribute to more resilient food systems, climate change mitigation, and more resilient farming systems through improvement of soil health and biodiversity on farm level.

Regenerative farming practices

Many farming practices that are associated with regenerative agriculture are also considered to be part of good farming practices in conventional agriculture. The regenerative farming principles with examples of associated context-dependent practices include minimization of tillage (zero tillage, reduced tillage, conservation agriculture, controlled traffic), maintenance of soil cover (use of mulch or cover crops), building soil carbon (use of biochar, compost, green or animal manure, maximizing root exudation), carbon sequestration (integration of trees and forests in farming, agroforestry, silvopasture), more natural nutrient cycles (more efficient application of mineral fertilizers, organic agriculture, use of green or animal manure, compost or cover crops), enhancing plant diversity (diverse crop rotations, multi-species cover crops, agroforestry), livestock integration in farming (silvopasture, rotational grazing, holistic planned grazing, pasture cropping and mixed farming), avoiding pesticides (diverse crop rotations, multi-species cover crops, agroforestry) and enhancing water holding capacity of the soil (use of biochar, compost, green or animal manure; holistic grazing).

Regenerative farming restores soil health

Applying any of the regenerative farming principles supports restoring soil health with the greatest impact being in applying minimum tillage, enhancing water holding capacity of soil, maintaining soil cover, building soil carbon, carbon sequestration, and relying on more natural nutrient cycles. Due to the woody plants used in agroforestry, particularly the carbon sequestration potential is increased in agroforestry compared with conventional agriculture. A major part of the regenerative farming practices focuses on improving soil health, and particularly on increasing soil carbon to increase crop yields and contribute to climate change mitigation, in other words, carbon farming. Soils that are healthy contribute to mitigating effects of extreme weather events such as flooding, droughts and strong winds on farm level. A healthy soil capable of provisioning plants with the right minerals (especially Ca and Si), will allow plants to grow healthier stems such that they can withstand stronger winds and prevent wind lodging. Nutrient leaching to the environment can be reduced by prevention of wind and water erosion which can result for instance in reduction in eutrophication. Nitrogen fixing plants reduce the need for nitrogen fertilization inputs and support nitrogen needs of the other plants in the agroforestry system. Reduced nitrogen inputs can also facilitate free associating nitrogen fixing bacteria as well as the plant’s own rhizophagy cycle, which is a key part of natural nitrogen acquisition. At the end, healthy soil leads to healthier ecosystems and agroforestry systems.

In Finland, the Lill-Nägels Agroforestry Pilot project established in 2022, aims at restoring soil health of a degraded agricultural land by successional silvorable agroforestry system with a strong focus on improving soil quality. At the Lill-Nägels Agroforestry Pilot different soil enhancing regenerative farming practices are practiced such as use of cover crops, compost, mulch, diverse plant communities, and treatment of seeds with biostimulants to enhance soil microbiome. The Lill-Nägels Agroforestry Pilot project is currently managed and monitored in EAFRD funded Agroforestry i Nyland project (2024–2026) which aims to promote agroforestry as a land management system in sustainable agriculture.

Regenerative farming supports biodiversity

The greatest impacts of regenerative farming principles on supporting biodiversity are regarded to be through enhancing plant diversity, increasing diversity of soil microfauna, avoiding pesticides and supporting carbon sequestration with trees being integrated in the regenerative farming systems. Regarding these three principles, agroforestry is regarded to be one of the most impactful regenerative farming practices in terms of supporting biodiversity and even reversing biodiversity loss. In agroforestry systems agrobiodiversity is wider both in terms of genetic and species diversity when compared to conventional monocultures. This diversity can in turn have wider impacts in controlling for instance external disturbance such as pests, diseases and other natural impacts such as wind damage or droughts.

Diverse agroforestry systems, such as forest grazing or successional silvoarable agroforestry, can help species occurring in natural environments finding suitable habitats in agricultural environments, such as endangered insects and plants which are dependent on habitats created by grazing. Agroforestry as a regenerative farming practice can have far reaching impacts on ecosystem functions, species diversity and reversal of biodiversity loss.

Increasing understanding of regenerative farming

In general, little information is available on regenerative farming in Finland. Also, no specific third-party audited certification exists for regenerative farming in Finland. Some of the organisations advancing regenerative farming in Finland are the Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG) and Maa-akatemia co-operative. Established in 2008, an independent non-profit foundation BSAG, has developed general regenerative farming criteria for farms in collaboration with stakeholders, namely farmers, researchers and companies. In turn, Maa-akatemia co-operative, established in 2024, provides an umbrella organization for regenerative advisory services.

The BSAG regenerative farming criteria is composed of eight farming practice components: 1) Continuous development of competencies and operations, 2) purposefully improving and maintaining soil health, 3) biodiversity above and below ground is systematically reinforced, 4) a diverse crop rotation, 5) maximisation of all-year-round, living vegetation cover, 6) minimisation of tillage, 7) basing nutrient use on plant needs and relies on organic fertilisers and biological nitrogen fixation, and 8) minimisation of the use of plant protection products. The BSAG regenerative farming criteria aim at supporting farmers’ and companies’ understanding on regenerative farming.

Photo: Tanja Kähkönen.

References

Baltic Sea Action Group. nd. Kriteeristö ja viljelijän oppimispolku yhteistyön tueksi. Available: https://www.bsag.fi/uudistava-viljely/kriteerit/

Baltic Sea Action Group. nd. Uudistava viljely on enemmän kuin hiiliviljely. Available: https://www.bsag.fi/uudistava-viljely/

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Maa-akatemia. 2025. Missio ja arvot. Available: https://www.maa-akatemia.fi/missio-ja-arvot
Novia University of Applied Sciences. 2025. Lill-Nägels Agroforestry Pilot Project. Available: https://www.novia.fi/en/lill-nagels/

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