Savanna Institute

Our basic strategy is to develop agricultural systems modeled after an exceptionally productive ecosystem: the savanna. In natural savannas, once common throughout the corn belts and bread baskets of the world, life flourishes in diversity. Savannas protect soil, regenerate nutrients, filter water, sequester carbon, harbor wildlife, and contribute to human well-being. Agricultural savannas can also function this way, taking the form of natural savannas, but with intentionally-designed and intensively-managed combinations of plants and animals that are valuable to humans for food, fuel, and fiber.

A pivotal goal of this emerging paradigm is the replacement of annual grains grown in monoculture – which supply the bulk of the human diet – with calories harvested in staple quantities from perennial plants grown in polyculture with integrated livestock. Nature works this way, powered by linked cyclical systems, without fossil inputs. Our agriculture must aim to do likewise.

We are not starting from scratch, nor are we alone in our vision. "Agroforestry", broadly defined as the intentional integration of trees with crops or livestock, is an existing body of research and policy that serves as a foundation for our work. Agroforestry encompasses a wide range of practices, although the systems we emphasize leverage highly productive tree and shrub crops grown in polyculture with integrated livestock. These integrated systems can provide many economic and ecological advantages over the conventional production agriculture system.

Key economic drivers include:
- Overyielding: more production per acre by
growing multiple crops in the same field
- Crop analogs: existing annual crop value
chains leveraged for new perennial crops
- Resilience via product diversification

Key ecological benefits include:
- Carbon sequestration
- Soil and nutrient stabilization
- Biodiversity enhancement
- Resilience to ecological pressures

The Savanna Institute works in collaboration with farmers and scientists via research, education, and outreach. Our research is cooperative and participatory: scientists and farmers work together to collect crucial data concerning the economic, ecological and social impact of agroforestry. We also facilitate collaboration among scientists at other institutions and farmers who are keen on research. Beyond research, our mission includes education. We help farmers think through questions about planning a new enterprise, including forthright acknowledgment of risks involved. We also facilitate knowledge exchange via on-farm field days, and a formal mentorship program is in development. To further extend knowledge-sharing among geographically-dispersed farmers, we are also developing virtual communities of practice within our new PerennialMap.org, a centralized hub for perennial farmers across the US to find each other, join together, and share information.

The Savanna Institute has engaged thousands of farmers and landowners across the Midwest through research, education, and outreach. We will continue to expand our programs and collaborations as our organization grows.