Perennial flower strips – a tool for improving pest control in fruit orchards

Functional Agrobiodiversity, Authored by Lukas Pfiffner, Laurent Jamar, Fabian Cahenzli, Maren Korsgaard, Weronika Swiergiel, Lene Sigsgaard

A central principle for riparian and wildlife-assisted agroforestry and regenerative systems involves leaving strips in between tree plantings as pollinator habitat. Often, this can be accomplished simply by letting the native forbs flower each year, with maintenance mowings on 3-4 year rotations to prevent succession to woody perennials. This is a practice we endorse and practice at LivingFuture’s SHO Farm. Pollinator strips provide habitat and food sources for grass-nesting birds, songbirds, many other insects, and rodents. These in turn attract predators like raptors, fox, bobcat, coyote, mink, weasel, and fisher. There is an untapped knowledge base in how nutrients can be cycled in such systems, but as this model more closely mimics an ecosystem, this area of research and practice hold great promise for the resilience of future food systems.

Improving attractiveness for the public and local wildlife

“Promoting local plant diversity within and around orchards not only significantly improves the visual quality of the landscape. It can also favour local wildlife and biodiversity.

A high biodiversity can furthermore provide an additional source of income for the farm through the receipt of subsidies, and increase its attractiveness for ecotourism and direct marketing. A biodiversity that can be perceived across farms increases the attractiveness of the landscape for visitors.

It has been shown that a better understanding of the issues and practices of biodiversity develop- ment increases farmer’s interest in the introduction of flower strips, natural enemies and their interactions in agro-ecosystems.”