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Last updated October 14, 2005

What is Woody Agriculture?

Woody Agriculture refers to the intensive production of agricultural staple commodities from highly domesticated woody perennial plants. It differs from agroforestry in that no annual crops are grown, and thus little or no tillage is performed. Permanent stands of the woody crop are established and seeds are harvested annually. Once every 5-10 years the wood is harvested for biomass by coppicing, whereupon the plants regenerate from the roots and resume production of the food crop one year later.

Advantages of a woody agricultural system

The concept has been developed at Badgersett Research Farm during the past 20 years. Data on yields of specific crops indicate commercialization is now possible. No commercial scale Woody Agriculture planting yet exists. This is the next step necessary to make the tremendous environmental advantages of this cropping system available to farmers.

Advantages include:


Part 2: The concept of Woody Agriculture

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