Agroforestry Use of Almond in Lebanon: Potential and Development.

This study aims to describe basic trends in temperature regimes in degraded landscape of the Kyjovsko region (South Moravia, Czech Republic). This region encompasses mostly very fertile soils (Chernozems, with very thick organic chernic horizon), which are however very often eroded (eroded Chernozems). This phenomenon is mainly due to merging of field blocks together during collectivization, which was the agricultural politicy in the period after the World War II. The resulting fields of as much as hundreds of ha have remained until present days. Such landscape is (aside from erosion hazard) of near-desert nature, especially in very hot and dry seasons, which happened in the last two years. The non-productive landscape features and agroforestry systems have been established in the area to eliminate such negative effects. To study the effectiveness of these measures, two study plots were established at two localities near the Šardice village and named after their owners/founders: The “Marada Plot” (12 ha)comprises nonproduction landscape features enhancing biodiversity and acting as a protection against erosion and a climate mitigation measure. The “Dumbrovsky Plot” (73 ha) consists of strips of woody vegetation (orchards) with agricultural intercrop (peas, lucerne), i.e. a productive system with expected important environmental benefits (agroforestry). At each of the plots, sensors for temperature and soil moisture monitoring were installed (TMS, see: https://tomst.com/web/en/systems/tms/). The TMS sensors once installed in the soil, collect 3x temperature (in 20-cm depth, on the soil surface, and 10 cm above the soil surface). Measurement of soil moisture is based on electro-conductivity and gives dimensionless number, which is a subject for calibration (Wild et al. 2019). At the “Marada Plot”, the TMS dataloggers were placed along a transect, from the conventional arable land (peas), through the “biobelt” (a belt of mixture of various grass species), to the “biocentre” (non-productive grassland with woody (shrub) vegetation). A fourth datalogger is situated at a hedgerow, right in the heart of “biocentre”. At the “Dumbrovsky Plot”, TMS datallogers are set up at a similar pattern – arable field (peas) and orchard (mostly plums)”. Together it is 6 sensors, collecting data every 15 minutes starting from 31.7.2019. In this study, a period of 2 months (VIII-IX) was analysed in more detail. Because of a limited number of thermometers, both areas were flown over on 4.9.2019 by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), “a drone” type Trinity F9, equipped with RGB and multispectral cameras. The spectral One of the GHG mitigation strategies is Agroforestry (AF). This discipline is renowned around the world as an integrated approach to sustainable land use since it supports the economic, social and environmental values of the territory, promoting resistance and resilience towards ongoing CC. In this study, the main objective is to develop a GIS-based approach for land-use suitability evaluation which will help the land managers to identify areas with physical constraints by analyzing the main limiting factors for almond production and to assist decision-makers to exploit crop managements adept to improve the land productivity. GIS has been used to classify the suitability for almonds based on the biophysical requirements of the tree and the land characteristics (Physico-chemical and climatic). Diverse land parameters such as edaphic parameters (Soil Texture/Soil Type, Soil Depth, and soil pH), topographic parameters (aspect, exposure (slope), elevation, and distance from the Sea) and climatic parameters (temperature, rainfall, frost, relative humidity) are evaluated. Then all of them are combined and integrated into the ArcGIS 10.6 platform to elaborate land suitability and capability maps elucidating the suitability degrees for identifying AF target regions for the Almond tree. The classification of land in terms of suitability is based on FAO 1976 guidelines for land evaluation. Overall, this work highlighted the potential of the almond tree to mitigate CC and its capacity to grow in marginal conditions under different combinations (alley cropping, silvopasture). This is expected to reduce vulnerability to the CC through all the benefits that AF systems may offer such as ensuring habitat for plants and animals, buffering microclimates, storing carbon, modulating water flows, providing food to people and increasing their income.