Agroforestry

**1. Agroforestry Overview:**

– Agroforestry is a polycultural land use management system.
– Trees are grown around or among crops or pasture.
– It combines agricultural and forestry technologies.
– Agroforestry creates diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, and sustainable land-use systems.
– Agroforestry shares principles with polyculture practices such as intercropping.
– Agroforestry systems offer advantages over conventional agricultural and forest production methods.

**2. Environmental Benefits of Agroforestry:**

– Agroforestry increases farm productivity and profitability.
– It reduces soil erosion and creates wildlife habitat.
– Agroforestry manages animal waste and increases biodiversity.
– Improved soil structure and carbon sequestration are additional benefits.
– Agroforestry practices increase carbon stocks in soil and woody biomass.
– Trees in agroforestry systems help sequester carbon lost from cutting existing forests.
– Agroforests reduce pressure on primary forests by providing forest products.

**3. Biodiversity and Soil Health in Agroforestry:**

– Agroforestry systems have higher biodiversity than conventional agricultural systems.
– Trees in agroforestry create ecological niches for various organisms.
– Agroforestry initiates an agroecological succession that promotes sustainability.
– Groundcover plants in agroforestry systems protect depleted soil from erosion.
– Nutrient uptake is higher in agroforestry systems compared to row-cropped fields.
– Agroforestry practices contribute to restoring degraded agricultural lands.

**4. Agroforestry Practices and Systems:**

– Alley cropping
– Silvopasture
– Windbreaks
– Forest farming
– Riparian forest buffers
– Shade crops like shade-grown coffee
– Crop-over-tree systems
– Intercropping and alley cropping

**5. Global Impact and Research on Agroforestry:**

– Agroforestry contributes to climate change mitigation and livelihoods.
– Agroforestry plays a role in scaling up regreening efforts.
– Agroforestry contributes to global and national carbon budgets.
– Research studies on multiple-cropping systems, climate change impacts, soil macrofauna, and gender equity.
– External resources and organizations supporting agroforestry initiatives globally.