Farmers' attitudes towards, and intentions to adopt, agroforestry on farms in lowland South-East and East England.

Agroforestry (AF) is a land use that incorporates trees into the production of agricultural crops and/or livestock on the same piece of land. As such, AF has the potential to contribute to national biogenic carbon capture and storage, improved soil structure and function that helps to reduce soil erosion and surface run-off and improved financial returns to farmers with minimal land loss to agriculture. To date, there has been very little uptake of AF in the UK despite awareness of these benefits and the availability of policies to support adoption. This suggests that there are barriers to the adoption of AF that policy, or market developments, have yet to address. This study set out to identify these barriers, along with potential drivers to further uptake of AF in South-East and East lowland England by means of a survey of 224 farmers and landowners in 2019 covering a range of farm sizes and types. We found that nearly 60% might consider planting small areas of AF, with plantations being the most preferred option. When raised to the regional level, this would take-up around 4.5% of the total farmed area. Financial reasons were behind some of the reluctance to plant, as well as a view that trees might interfere with other farm operations. This suggests that for AF to be a tool to help the UK Government reach their woodland planting goal to achieve their net-zero target by 2050, farmers will need both planting grants and maintenance payments if they are to plant more AF.