Agroforestry is now widely recognised for its many benefits: adapting to climate change, protecting crops from frost, improving natural pest regulation, increasing organic matter, and preserving soils.
Farmers — whether arable, livestock or vegetable growers — who wish to plant trees may also be interested in integrating fruit trees as an additional economic activity on the farm.

However, choosing the right fruit trees for their fields quickly becomes a technical challenge, as it requires real expertise: which species? which rootstocks? which varieties?

The tool, in a very simple way, asks the key questions needed to characterise the plot to be planted, the type of project envisaged and the time the farmer can dedicate to it. It then rapidly identifies, in the form of a shortlist, the most suitable species and rootstocks for that specific situation.

In addition to the web application — which provides a ranking of species/rootstock combinations and lists of varieties suited to the farmer’s project — many resources and technical factsheets are available online for consultation and download. These cover a wide range of topics: from initial project planning, to planting and management advice, as well as additional information on species, rootstocks and varieties, helping refine the farmer’s final choices based on the tool’s results.