Alnarp’s Agroecology Farm
Why is this project important?
At Alnarp’s Agroecology Farm regeneration is a central focus of the production. Soil health and carbon sequestration are the cornerstones of the farm design, crop planning, and daily gardening activities.
The Grant will enable the team to experiment with a meticulously planned alley-cropping and market gardening system in combination with 400 newly planted apple trees in their orchard.
Meet the Alnarp’s team
Alnarp’s Agroecology Farm was started in 2021 by a group of passionate Agroecology master’s students at SLU. They shared a vision of creating a space for developing practical skills in farming, where theory could be tested by applying it to the reality of running a small-scale farming business.
This vision also included that the farm would become a vital educational tool and research facility over time as well as a welcoming environment that engages the youth and brings together the local community.
Today on a small plot of land (0,5 hectares) north of Malmö, Alnarp’s Agroecology Farm now includes an apple orchard and a market garden production, serving their local community.
About the project:
After planting 500 apple trees, several challenges emerged, from poor soil and low biodiversity to aggressive couch grass threatening the young orchard.
Their solution is a creative mix of perennial and annual crops that help each other grow. By combining apple trees with rows of vegetables, sunflowers, maize, and deep-rooted grains like Kernza, they’re building healthy soil, fighting weeds naturally, and reducing the need for outside inputs like compost or fertilizer.
As Leo from the team puts it: ”Being funded by the Foodprint Nordic Restore Program could allow us to continue monitor soil health parameters – in our established market garden to verify if the soil health improvement has maintained and stabilized throughout the next seasons as well as in the new Kernza-vegetable alley cropping system. With continuous soil health monitoring we aim to provide scientific evidence of the benefits of regenerative practices and contribute to the local as well as broader conversation on the future of sustainable agriculture.”
The Grant will empower acquiring a walk-behind tractor, an efficient drip irrigation system and other investments needed to implement and establish the apple orchard as an innovative and regenerative system of biodiversity and self-sufficiency.
Project details:
Location: Sweden
Implementation period: April 2025-April 2026
Grant Amount: 120.000 DKK
Measurements: Soil and nutrients
