Young ash trees on Liam Beechner's farm in Clonakilty. Speaking at the National Organic Training Skillnet’s agroforestry conference recently, Eugene Curran from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) gave an overview of Ireland’s agri-forestry scheme, which was launched in 2015 and has now been adopted by over 60 Irish farms on a range of soil types and farming systems. The key difference between agroforestry and regular afforestation is that landowners are allowed to graze animals and harvest fodder under this option. The premium lasts just five years compared to 15 for regular forestry schemes. Like all afforestation options, putting land into agroforestry has no impact on single farm payments.