Agroforestry Through the Elements – Agricology Podcast
Project Background
This season explores agroforestry through a fresh lens, using the elements as a framework to deepen understanding and challenge assumptions around trees on farms. Grounding each episode around the themes of water, fire, earth, air, and people offers a dynamic and exciting way to explore individual topics in greater depth, while emphasising the fundamentally interconnected nature of agroforestry systems.
Throughout the series, which was largely recorded at the Agroforestry Show in September 2025, we hear from a diverse mix of farmers, researchers and advisors whose stories and expertise highlight the wide range of ways trees and hedgerows can shape farming systems for the better, alongside a recognition of the potential challenges and trade-offs.
While each episode focuses on a specific theme, the overarching aim is to explore how trees on farms contribute to more than just individual functions, holding the ability to transform whole landscapes and ecosystems. In other words, the true power of agroforestry lies in the way its parts interact, creating effects that are more than the sum of their elements.
Aims & Approach
The series sets out to challenge and explore the following threads:
- How trees help manage water on farms – by improving infiltration and storage to effectively buffer arable land and pasture against flood risk and drought. We hear from researchers carrying out in-field trials and look at practical tree care tips and broader system design principles.
- Energy in the system – from firewood and biomass to nutrient cycling and carbon flow. Guests discuss how trees and hedgerows can play a major role in creating low-input, circular systems with lasting returns for both farm and climate
- How trees improve soil biology, structure and fertility. We explore how agroforestry systems can restore life below ground, support nutrient cycling, and offer long-term benefits for productivity, ecology and climate resilience.
- How trees shape airflow, shelter crops and livestock, and support vital pollinators. Guests discuss how agroforestry can change local conditions and how this has benefited the health of their soil and their animals.
- The educational and social dimensions that shape how agroforestry is understood and adopted, and the importance of co-design, community networks, shared knowledge, and long-term relationships in building agroforestry systems that work for both land and livelihoods.
Project outputs
Explore each of the episodes below…
Latest episode
Episode 1
Water
– In Conversation With Ben Raskin, Colin Tosh and Vicki Hird
The first episode of the series focuses on the element of water, exploring how trees impact flood risk, rainfall, soil moisture and much more. Guest podcaster Wallace Currie is joined by three guests who each bring their own unique perspective on the topic whilst also sharing their broader agroforestry experience.
Ben Raskin
Ben Raskin, Head of Agroforestry at the Soil Association, author, manager of a 200-acre agroforestry planting project in Wiltshire, and co-organiser of the Agroforestry Show, kicks us off. Ben has over 30 years of farming experience and brings a wealth of knowledge to the conversation about using trees effectively to manage extremes of water in a changing climate.
Colin Tosh
Next is Colin Tosh, Senior Agroforestry Researcher at the Organic Research Centre who brings a great deal of experience in carrying out trials and running research projects across the UK. He talks about his work modelling agroforestry systems to understand how trees impact water on farms through their influence on rainfall interception, soil characteristics, microclimates and more.
Vicki Hird
We finish with a fascinating conversation with Vicki Hird, who wears many hats in her professional life, working as an environmental and farming campaigner, researcher, policy specialist, author, and Strategic Lead on Agriculture at The Wildlife Trusts. She touches on the challenges of water pollution caused by both agriculture and sewage companies and explores how agroforestry can help tackle these issues by reducing sediment run-off. Vicki also talks about her work with lowland peat soils and explains why “more trees mean more water.”
Listen to the episode here
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