Intro to Agroforestry

• Agroforestry


  A collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence
• Agroforestry systems

  • There are both ecological and economical interactions between the different components
  • Normally involves two or more species of plants (or plants and animals), at least one of which is a woody perennial
  • Always have two or more outputs
  • The cycle is always more than one year
  • More complex (ecologically, structurally, functionally and economically) than a monocropping system
• Agroforestry


  The management and integration of forest trees, crops and/or livestock on the same plot of land and can be an integral component of productive agriculture
• Agroforestry is derived from ecology and is one of the three principal land-use sciences, the other two being agriculture and forestry
• Agroforestry differs from agriculture and forestry by placing an emphasis on integration of and interactions among a combination of elements rather than just focusing on each element individually
• Agroforestry has a lot in common with intercropping


  Both practices place an emphasis on interaction between different plant species
• Both agroforestry and intercropping can result in higher overall yields and reduced operational costs
• Agroforestry systems are multifunctional systems that can provide a wide range of economic, sociocultural and environmental benefits
• Agroforestry was formally outlined by American economic geographer J. Russell Smith in his book Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture (1929)


  Early 20th century
• Smith viewed tree-based "permanent agriculture" as a solution to the destructive erosion that often followed the cultivation of sloping lands
• Smith's contributions were largely overlooked during the Green Revolution of the 1960s and the subsequent and more-inclusive Farming Systems Research/Extension (FSR/E) development approach of the early 1970s that sought sustainable agricultural alternatives
• In 2002, ICRAF was renamed the World Agroforestry Centre to reflect its global mandate
• The World Agroforestry Centre has played the leading role in collecting information, conducting research, disseminating research results, pioneering new approaches and systems, and attempting to reduce the doubts still held by a few sceptics by the presentation of hard facts
• Today, agroforestry is taught as a part of forestry and agriculture degree courses in many universities in both the developing and developed world; and specific degrees in agroforestry are already offered in a few
• Presently, instead of agroforestry being merely the handmaiden of forestry, the system is being more and more utilized as an agricultural system, particularly for small-scale farmers
• Agroforestry is fast becoming recognized as a system which is capable of yielding both wood and food and at the same time, of conserving and rehabilitating ecosystems
• Agroforestry Systems

  • Blend agriculture and forestry practices/crops with active management of the system pieces
  • Intentional – designed and managed combinations for a planned result
  • Intensive – components are managed to maintain production and environmental benefits
  • Integrated – a blend of agriculture, forestry and environmental science
  • Interactive – designed to minimize negative and maximize positive interactions between components
• The goal of agroforestry is to enhance the production of more than one component at a time while providing for environmental benefits
• Management for a single agriculture or forestry crop would fall outside of the definition of agroforestry as would opportunistic wild harvest of native plants from the forest
• Agroforestry must include some "human management of the agriculture and forest crops"
• Agroforestry involves the intentional integrated management of the forest to increase the production or quality of the non-timber components
• Bases for classifying agroforestry systems

  • Structure
  • Function
  • Socioeconomic
  • Ecological
• Structural basis


  Refers to the composition of the components, including spatial arrangement of the woody component, vertical stratification of all the components and temporal arrangement of the different components
• Functional basis


  Refers to the major function or role of the system, usually of the woody component (such as timber, fruit, fodder etc.)
• Socioeconomic basis


  Refers to the level of inputs of management (low or high input) or intensity or scale of management and commercial goals (subsistence, commercial or intermediate)
• Ecological basis


  Refers to the environmental condition and ecological suitability of systems, based on the assumption that certain types of systems can be more appropriate for certain ecological conditions
• These broad bases of classification of agroforestry are neither independent nor mutually exclusive – they are interrelated