Agroforestry is the deliberate integration of woody species into a crop or livestock production system, with the aim of creating interactions that are beneficial both economically and environmentally.
It may involve living hedges, associated plantings such as banana and cocoa in the Amazon zone, or silvopastoral systems combining service trees, timber and grazing for ruminant livestock. It also means keeping wooded buffer strips along watercourses and drainage channels to protect water quality. More than advising our clients on these techniques, since 2016 we have also been investing in the development of an agroforestry farm through a subsidiary called CulturA, which puts into practice cropping routes that make the most of Amazonian biodiversity. We have more than 150 ha spread over several sites where we are developing our first agroforestry systems, mainly based on cocoa (Theobroma cacao) and wassay (Euterpe oleracea) depending on the ecosystems encountered. At NovAmazone, we have a vision of sustainable and profitable tropical farming systems, structured in strong value chains. The principles of agroforestry offer a simple, sustainable and profitable solution to the many economic and environmental problems faced by farmers. We base our expertise on making the most of the bio-resources typical of the Amazonian environment, such as fruit, forest, aromatic and medicinal species. We had the opportunity to test our approach with the founder of the Songhaï centres in Benin, Dr Godfrey NZAMUJO, who is also one of our sources of inspiration, by co-organising his visit on site in partnership with the Continuing Education Institute of the University of French Guiana as part of a lecture series in March 2018. His valuable advice encourages us to pursue our objectives.
Plant conservation and propagation
Sustainable agroforestry requires a minimum of autonomy on the part of the producer in conserving and propagating agroforestry species. NovAmazone provides you with advice and technical assistance on plant conservation, sowing and plant propagation techniques (seed sowing, cuttings, layering, cross-pollination, etc.). This will allow you to keep all the plant qualities you value in a mother plant, and to keep the benefits it brings to your agrosystem. Would you like to develop a nursery to secure your supply of plants or to supply other clients? We will study the appropriate technical and financial solutions with you.
Preserving sensitive habitats
In the Amazon zone, sensitive habitats, and in particular wetlands of exceptional biodiversity, are threatened by intensive exploitation of the primary forest. Agroforestry makes the most of and maintains the local forest cover by combining it with non-woody commercial plantings, and so helps preserve these sensitive habitats by giving them a role and an economic value. NovAmazone advises you on the choice of species, their density and their layout to best preserve the fragile ecosystems and sensitive habitats of your land. As proof of this commitment, CulturA, a subsidiary of NovAmazone, has for several years entered into certain landscape agri-environmental measures under the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) support scheme. To date we are committed to preserving and maintaining more than 5,000 metres of landscape hedges and wooded strips along watercourses on the sites of our subsidiary CulturA.
Choice of agroforestry crops
In humid tropical environments, and in particular in French Guiana, adopting agroforestry cropping methods is still sometimes a challenge. In the kingdom of the forest, the farmer, who usually struggles against a forest to be converted into farmland, is sometimes reluctant to plant trees. Yet the potential benefit of agroforestry in the Amazon environment is very high, if we know how to turn the forest’s particular characteristics into assets. For example, the combination put in place on the CulturA agroforestry farm between cocoa and wassay with timber trees can prove to be a profitable agroforestry system. The forest that makes up the initial environment can also be put to use, by processing timber into sawn wood and the remaining biomass into energy. Preferable to burning in terms of carbon balance, this use can reduce development costs or even cover the clearing costs of the plot. At NovAmazone we believe that the Amazon forest was already being cultivated in agroforestry for several millennia by indigenous peoples; the aim today is to draw inspiration from these ancestral practices and adapt them to the changing global context. After decades dominated by a globalised model of intensive exploitation of the planet’s resources, agroforestry, thanks to the many ecosystem services it provides, is today a relevant option for growing fruit in Amazon environments.
Developing grassland for silvopastoralism
Combining forest crops with animal husbandry makes the most of both timber production and animal growth. Livestock graze and use the forage resources found under the trees. At the same time, this grazing creates clearings in the tree cover, which show off the trees and promote their growth. Inspired in particular by the models developed by Embrapa in Brazil, NovAmazone supports you in your project to develop grassland for silvopastoral use, which requires a prior study of the soils, local regulations and the environmental context in order to choose the appropriate species, the density of trees per hectare and the zoning of your farm most suited to this practice.
The founder’s vision
Today’s and tomorrow’s agriculture is agriculture with a positive impact, both for the people who practise it and for the environment it is part of. My experience has convinced me that one of the keys to achieving this lies in an innovative private sector taking up the principles of agroecology. That conviction led me to found NovAmazone in 2016, to bring my expertise to the development of sustainable and profitable agricultural and agri-food projects. Today NovAmazone offers tailored support to investors, companies, public bodies and local authorities in their projects to create or transition towards sustainable, profitable and above all resilient systems of land-use planning, production or processing.
Brice Epailly, founder of NovAmazone
