Climate change and its consequences? Perspectives from a weather expert and agroforestry practitioner

Jan Große-Kleimann, a practising agroforestry farmer, and Claudia Kleinert were invited by our Agroforestry Living Laboratory team to speak about climate change, its significance for agriculture in the Lower Rhine region and the opportunities offered by agroforestry systems. Not only people from the agricultural sector accepted the invitation, but also people of all ages who are interested in climate change and/or sustainable nutrition. However, many guests were also simply curious.

‘Smarter out than in’

This opportunity for exchange and knowledge transfer had to be utilised, as the Vice President for Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer at HSRW and project manager of our TransRegINT project, Prof. Dr Peter Kisters, addressed in his welcoming speech: In addition to the responsibility for training young people, HSRW ‘has the responsibility to transfer scientific knowledge into practice. However, we don’t want to inform with a pointed finger.” He hoped that the participants would ‘leave the evening a little smarter than when they came in’. The lively discussions following the presentations suggest that the event was successful in providing food for thought and information.

Consolidating

And they gave an idea of how important co-operation and networking are. The mayor of the city of Kleve, Wolfgang Gebing, emphasised the joint efforts of the city of Kleve, the Haus Riswick Agricultural Research and Education Centre and HSRW to unite education, municipality and agricultural practitioners. He referred to the ‘Alleen3’ project. Here, the town of Kleve leases land to the agricultural sector. This will be used to establish an agroforestry system in collaboration with our Agroforestry Living Laboratory. The area will be cultivated, planted and open to the public as part of the 2029 State Garden Show. According to Wolfgang Gebing, it is these ‘many small steps’ that make the big change possible.

Dr Franz-Josef Stork, Head of the Haus Riswick Agricultural Research and Training Centre, stated in his welcoming address that the idea of agroforestry in the Lower Rhine region can certainly be considered a provocation: ‘Is this sensible for sugar beet soils?’. His opinion: ‘Yes.’ The collaboration with the HSRW and our agroforestry real laboratory, including the emerging ‘Alleen3’ project, offers the opportunity to carry out further research into the feasibility and success of agroforestry systems. Solutions need to be found to sequester carbon in the soil. Agriculture sees itself as having a responsibility, but: ‘We don’t know what will happen in the next few years.

What is to come?

Claudia Kleinert had a very clear answer to this in her presentation: ‘Climate change is progressing much faster than foreseeable.’ Her realisation from 30 years as a weather presenter: ‘We in Europe are the worst affected by the effects of climate change in the world!’ She backed up this statement with statistics: with the exception of this summer, summers are becoming far too dry and winters too wet. 20 to 30 per cent more rain is expected in winter. ‘What do I do with permanently flooded fields?’ she asked. Not a rhetorical question, as it turned out afterwards, because continuous rainfall events, such as those experienced in the Lower Rhine until the spring of this year, are still a concern for farmers in the lowlands with their heavy soils.

How to react?

For farmer Jan Große-Kleimann from Steinfurt in Münsterland, there is only one option: ‘Everything starts in the soil.’ His abbreviated vision: healthy soil makes for healthy plants, which make for healthy animals, which make for a healthy climate and ultimately for healthy people. The dedicated agroforestry practitioner began creating an agroforestry system on 10 hectares of land four years ago. He spoke passionately, honestly and full of enthusiasm about his experiences, beginners’ mistakes and setbacks. The agroforestry system, i.e. the combination and cultivation of arable crops or permanent grassland, with or without livestock, together with woody plants on one area, sets the cycle in motion and creates synergy effects. In his eyes, this is the core element of sustainable agriculture.

Agroforestry – more than just a tree planted

And Jan Große-Kleimann, whose emerging agroforestry system has already been visited by Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir, lists further advantages. For him, his agroforestry system consisting of apple trees, valuable woods such as wild pear and cereals is a nutrient pump and erosion protection. It helps to build up humus and recharge the groundwater. Land utilisation efficiency is increased, as an increase in productivity per hectare and area can be expected compared to monocultures. CO2 storage is higher with woody plants than with annual arable crops. Not to mention the higher variety and species diversity, which is also favoured by the creation of flower strips in the tree strips. The trees themselves create a microclimate.

Small steps towards change

Jan Große-Kleimann also spoke openly about the challenges, particularly in the financial area. ‘Without other sources of income such as pig fattening and energy generation from photovoltaics, financing the agroforestry system and the necessary maintenance measures would be much more difficult than it already is. Especially at the beginning of an agroforestry system, other financial sources are needed, because trees do not produce immediately after planting, but require a lot of care until they produce yields in a few years. He does not yet know who the buyers will be. However, he sees a huge opportunity in direct marketing. He already markets the rye flour from the agroforestry directly and via a local baker.

His conclusion: ‘Things don’t always work out quickly and immediately, but it’s the small steps towards change that we can use to get our ecosystem going.’ This was in the same vein as Kleve’s mayor Wolfgang Gebing, who spoke of the ‘many small steps’ that make major change possible.