The project undertakes climate and environmental impact assessments of the whole value chains linked to Mixed Farming and Agroforestry Systems (MiFAS), and in addition, the economic impacts of MiFAS are assessed along with an assessment of the governance and infrastructure in the value chains. The effect of integration in the mixed farming systems will be evaluated at the area and product level for various environmental and economic impacts. Methodologies, including Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and cost-benefit assessments that incorporates all the impacts along the value chain are used and developed in collaboration with networks of farmers and stakeholders from selected value chain network case studies (in Portugal, Austria, Netherlands and Denmark).

The case studies are chosen to obtain a broad geographical spread in Europe and in order to get examples of different mixed farming and agroforestry systems to analyse possible climate, environmental and economic effects of integrating the systems.

The project specifically develops LCA methodologies with regard to the complexity of MiFAS, the climate mitigation potential and carbon sequestration in woody biomass and soils, and inclusion of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Thus, the LCA methodology will be adapted to the selected value chains and mixed farming systems including modelling of carbon sequestration and biodiversity. The assessment of governance and infrastructure will include analysis of type of governance, strengths and weaknesses in terms of the network structure, possible alternatives in terms of supply and outlets in case of disturbance.

The research addressing value chains will deliver reports on:

• climate and environmental impact of products from MiFAS
• impact of MiFAS on costs along value chains
• governance in the MiFAS value chain.

See also the scientific publications:

• How does Life Cycle Assessment capture the environmental impacts of agroforestry? A systematic review 

 Authors: Mónica Quevedo-Cascante, Lisbeth Mogensen, Anne Grete Kongsted, Marie Trydeman Knudsen

Published in: Science of The Total Environment, Volume 890, 10 September 2023

• Mixed farming and agroforestry systems: A systematic review on value chain implications

Authors: Guy Low, Tobias Dalhaus, Miranda P.M. Meuwissen

Published in: Agricultural Systems, Volume 206, March 2023
 

Preliminary results are available in the following posters presented at a MIXED workshop, September 2023, Toulouse:

• Preliminary Life Cycle Assessment of Silvopastoral Systems (Quevedo-Cascante et al. (2023)) 
• Quantifying and incorporating biomass carbon sequestration by trees in LCA (Waqas et al. (2023))
• The economic impacts of switching from specialised farming to mixed farming and agroforestry systems (MiFAS) in Europe ( Low et al. (2023))