Coppice willow forestry on arable lands

Coppice willow forestry is an agricultural production alternative on arable lands, which are apart from conventional food and fodder production. Much of the pioneer work in this field has been done in Sweden. Professor Gustaf Sirén initiated there the research in the early 1970s. In 1980s the idea of coppice willow forestry was transferred to practice, to farms in southern and central Sweden. In 1990s the husbandry with coppice willows has stabilized. In the mid 1990s the coppice willow growing at Swedish set aside fields, exceeds 10,000 hectares.

In 1983 Gustaf Sirén transferred the Swedish knowhow, developed during the past 10 years, to Finland. A coppice willow research and development program was initiated and funded by Imatran Voima Corporation (later Fortum Corporation). The trials were planted on available, abandoned agricultural fields belonging to the Kopparnäs Energy Park, in Inkoo, 50 km west of Helsinki.

Considering a research period of 10 years, the findings in Kopparnäs in 1993 were ready to be transferred to Finnish farms. The research and development program had met with its goal: to demonstrate the feasibility of the Swedish idea of coppice willow forestry also in Finnish farming conditions.

This ten-year review has been written on the experiences from 1983 to 1993 in the Kopparnäs coppice willow trials. As some coppice willow research on arable lands had been done between 1973 and 1983, an introduction, as well as a short description of potential species, has been included.

In Helsinki, 13 August 1994,
Veli Pohjonen

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