The Farm - The People - The Area
The EcoGaia team consists of two young farmers that come from the area of Trikala, where they are farming now. They are both highly involved in social movements all over Greece and are not only known for their vegetable baskets and their polyculture farm, but also for their work in promoting community supported agriculture in Greece. This enables their reach to ecologically sensitive farmers all over Greece and at the same time through the baskets and their packaged products to conscious consumer including the vegan movement in Greece.
Key concept
The grain and legumes production will be converted into an alley cropping system, meaning that tree lines consisting of timber, fruit trees or support species will be added into the fields as to increase overall production and ecological impact. Wind breaks and hedgerows will be planted to protect from wind stress. The added biodiversity will support the system overall through attracting beneficial insects and other animals. Different strategies for increasing the soil fertility will be proposed and we will focus on increasing the organic matter content of the soil.
Their market garden operation will be converted into a system inspired by syntropic agriculture following natural successions that lead a simple system into a forest consisting of different layers of plants.
The transition in Detail
BEFORE THE CONVERSION
Very few trees exist in the market garden plot and no trees in the grain field.
AFTER THE CONVERSION
Tree lines will be added to the grain field (green lines) and to the market garden plot (red and blue lines).
Tree lines
For crop
Mulberries
Plum
Grapes
Hazelnut
For Timber
For organic matter production
Black Maple
Catalpa
Eleagnus
Side view of the tree lines for the grain field
Trees and shrubs of different layers are added in 20m distance to each other in the grain field.
Perspective view of the tree lines for the grain field
The distance of 20 meters between the tree lines leaves enough space for the tractor to pass and seed and harvest the crops.
