What if you could turn a dry, water-scarce plot of land into a thriving ecosystem? In this new episode of Walking the Land with a Regenerative Farmer we follow the journey of Felipe Pasini, as we explore his transformative work on the Amadeco Syntropic farm in Depressa, Salento, Puglia. Felipe reveals how he tackled the challenges of traditional dry stone walls, rocky soil, and limited water supply to create a productive, visually stunning farm organized into innovative elements.
Through syntropic farming – also known as syntropic agroforestry or successional agroforestry -, a set of principles and practices created by the Swiss geneticist and farmer Ernst Götsch, Felipe and his partner Dayana Andrade are bringing a revolutionary approach to intensive vegetable production adapted for the Mediterranean climate. Felipe shares a detailed design featuring strategically spaced tree lines and aromatic plants like sage and rosemary that create a self-sustaining ecosystem. We also talk about the critical role of pruning in syntropic agroforestry and how mechanization can be harmoniously integrated into these complex systems as well as how to maximize biomass production and minimize water dependency, even in the most challenging environments.
“The problem is not the lack of technology, the problem is that people who could do that they don’t know the questions we have and they haven’t so far internalized the questions that we’re trying to solve”.
– Felipe Pasini
We also delve into the long-term benefits of regenerative agriculture over conventional methods. Felipe provides real-life examples of increased biomass and faster timber growth, illustrating the transformative power of proper land management. We explore multilayer agroforestry design principles and the potential role of AI in sustainable farm management.
“We try to make the consortia of stratified multilayer plants to succeed one another really quickly, complementing each other, not one tied and taking the space of another, but quite the opposite, one helping and fitting together in the space and in time with each other”.
– Felipe Pasini
Finally, as a special treat, Felipe gives an inside look at innovative olive farming techniques that promise to revolutionize the industry.
“We can live really well in our agricultural life without really using concepts of competition. What we avoid is the overposition of plants, overposition of functions, which means we don’t plant like two species that belong to the same strata and to the same successional step, next to each other”. – Felipe Pasini
This episode is part of Walking the Land with a regenerative farmer series.
LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION ON:
LINKS:
- Amadeco Syntropic Farm
- Amadeco on Instagram
- Life in Syntropy
- Life in Syntropy – Facebook page
- Life in Syntropy – Instagram page
- Video Water can be planted – Ernst Götsch
- Agenda Götsch
- Life in Sintrophy
LINKED INTERVIEWS:
- Felipe Pasini – Trees bring water so when in doubt plant more trees and complexify
- Farmers’ Philosophy series – Dayana Andrade, farmer at Amadeco and author of Life in Syntropy
- Jan-Gisbert Schultze – How a VC investor got bitten by the regeneration bug and went via Joel Salatin, Gabe Brown and Ernst Gotsch deep into syntropic agroforestry
- Anastassia Makarieva – Healthy forests invest their capital to create their own rain
- Jonas Steinfeld – The many shades of green of agroforestry systems
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The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.