Trees in South African Agriculture

This book provides a synthesis of the joined German-South African research project FarmImpact-Development of Sustainable Water Solutions for Farms in South Africa.

The FarmImpact concept is aiming to grow hedges for water-efficient agricultural, wine, and fruit products and to increase productivity. This includes the design of a water-efficient agricultural practice to improve crop water use through windbreak hedges, including improved tree selection and a technological part for predicting irrigation needs. The research approach lies in the intelligent combination of networked microclimatic measurements, drone-based remote sensing, and ecophysiological modeling. In wind field modeling addition, the objective of increasing soil fertility, reducing soil erosion, and providing additional ecological services is being pursued through integrated landscape measures.

This book is aimed at students, teachers, and scientists in the fields of agriculture, forestry and terrestrial ecology, environmental, nature and landscape planning, environmental resource management, as well as scientists and representatives in specialized authorities and associations, and policymakers of related disciplines.

Agriculture and agroforestry in South Africa an introduction to FarmImpact and the book. - An empirical classification of weather types and interrelations with rainfall and evapotranspiration in the southern Western Cape South Africa. - Expert N agroforestry model. - Spatial analysis of wind shelterbelt effects. - Farm trees in Multifunctional Landscapes in South Africa.