Silvoarable agroforestry is the integration on a parcel of land of arable crops and trees. This has not been commonly practised in the UK and Ireland in recent years, largely due to the historical separation of agriculture and forestry. There has been a view amongst farmers that trees lower yields of arable crops, and also get in the way of normal farming operations.
This perception is changing, and some silvoarable systems are being adopted. These most commonly involve the growing of fruit trees in cereal crops or growing fruit trees with vegetable crops.
Details of silvoarable systems in the UK can be found in reports of the EU AGFORWARD project. Field visits to silvoarable sites have also featured in Annual Meetings of the Farm Woodland Forum, and descriptions of these can be found in the Field Visit Reports of those meetings.