With the aim of facilitating and incentivise the adoption of Mixed Farming and Agroforestry Systems under EU legislation the sister-project of MIXED, AGROMIX, which is being finalised this year, organised this event to share results from the project and provide a stage for an exchange between policymakers, farmers, and researchers.

The importance of new insights and documentation of effects

Tommy Dalgaard (Aarhus University, DK), Coordinator of MIXED and Holger Pabst (Institute for Rural Development Research, GE) represented MIXED at the event. As part of the opening, Tommy Dalgaard was invited to introduce MIXED. He explained how important the new insights and documentation of effects from Mixed Farming Systems from the involved networks around Europe is and will be; also, for the development of the new CAP – knowledge that are not available from the existing databases and statistics.
Holger Pabst presented a poster on the initial policy related findings of MIXED.

At the event there was focus on the importance of transforming the EU food system towards sustainability and resilience and why the EU is supporting research project on agroforestry and mixed farming. AGROMIX provided the following recommendations based on their work in the project:

•    Centre all future policies on the High-Level Panel of Expert’s 13 Principles of Agroecology, including the CAP as well as transformative and inclusive policy design frameworks.
•    Focus policy on improving agroforestry value chains and routes to market.
•    Improve financial incentives to maintain and extend existing agroforestry systems, while improving land use and access challenges, particularly for young and tenant farmers.

Two different approaches towards a common goal

The two projects, AGROMIX and MIXED, are with two different approaches providing important information for the development of a common European policy to support the transformation of the EU food system to become sustainable and based on more mixed farming and agroforestry. However, the projects also reveal that with the present data and knowledge of the benefits and dynamics of the systems, it is still challenging to develop efficient EU policies that can support the transformation.

"We need to know and be aware of both the barriers to conversion to more mixed systems, and the potentials at both farm-, landscape- and value chain level," Tommy Dalgaard explains.

At the event there was room for discussion and debate in a 'world café' and through panel discussions also taking questions from the audience.

Learn more about AGROMIX and the policy summit here:

Incoming EU commission needs an improved Green Deal

AGROMIX | AGROMIX Summit: Agroforestry for the future of European Agriculture (agromixproject.eu)