{"id":431,"date":"2020-01-23T14:55:13","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T14:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agroforestrynet.eu\/afinet\/?page_id=431"},"modified":"2020-01-23T14:59:03","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T14:59:03","slug":"water-retention-in-semi-arid-environments-with-sandy-soils","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/agroforestrynet.eu\/afinet\/water-retention-in-semi-arid-environments-with-sandy-soils","title":{"rendered":"Water retention in semi-arid environments with sandy soils"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Source:<\/strong>\u00a0Ana Tom\u00e1s (ISA-UL), Josep Crous-Duran (ISA-UL), Jo\u00e3o Pedro Gon\u00e7alves (Finca Equilibrium)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The\u00a0Finca Equilibrium<\/a>\u00a0is a six hectares farm that started its activities in January 2017, in Poceir\u00e3o, located 55km inland from Lisbon in Central Portugal (38.717048, -8.756364<\/a>). The region is characterized by a flat topography with hot and dry weather, sandy soils with very low organic matter values and pools of water (\u201cpeg\u00f5es\u201d) over heavy clay layers. The main long term objective of the Finca Equilibrium, of the land owner and Jo\u00e3o and M\u00f3nica (the current developers), is to grow a food-forest kind of agroforestry system that will produce enough food to sustain the farm inhabitants (2 or 3 families), livestock, plus a surplus for occasional clients. For this they are gathering knowledge from several sources including local elderly people wisdom but also from international speakers like Allan Savory, Geoff Lawton, Ernst Gotsch and Akira Miyawaki.<\/p>\n

For the implementation they considered different production methods, like biointensive organic gardening, permaculture and syntropic agroforestry, creating a green patch mosaic and tree belts that contrasts with the neighboring parcels dedicated to monoculture crops, wine production or livestock grazing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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