Czech Republic | Preparing The Ground For Agroforestry

Czech Republic | Preparing The Ground For Agroforestry

Czech farmer Terezie Daňková raises cattle and sheep on a 450 ha. ranch in Southern Bohemia. She rents most of the land she farms. Every year the shape of her farm shifts a little when the tenancy agreements are renewed in a dizzying dance involving over 100 different landowners. 
Agroforestry offers benefits for animal welfare and soil fertility. Terezie is not only a farmer but also a member of the committee that is preparing agroforestry for Czech law. And that is why Louise Kelleher spoke to her about the Kafkaesque barriers to agroforestry in the Czech Republic, the subsidies conundrum, land tenure and the disproportionate number of Czech farmers who work on the farm, compared to non-farming landowners. Often the city-dwelling grandchildren of those who originally worked the land, the present-day landowners have a very different attitude to land use.