Download Agroforestry: Definition

Relationship between
Agroforestry and Community Forestry
Community Forestry - Module 2.4
Forestry Training Institute, Liberia
Agroforestry: Definition
• Agroforestry: A dynamic, ecologically based natural resource
management practice that, through the integration of trees and
other tall woody plants with agricultural plants on farms and in
agricultural landscape, diversifies production for increased social,
economic, and environmental benefits. -- World Agroforestry
Center (2003)
• Agroforestry: "Agroforestry is 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. In agroforestry
system there are both ecological and economical interactions
between the different components. -- World Agroforestry Center
(2003)
Agroforestry: Definition
• Cultivating trees and agricultural crops in intimate
combination with one another is an ancient practice
that farmers have used throughout the world.
• Agroforestry is a new name for an old set of land-use
practices. It is an integrated approach to solving landuse problems by allowing farmers to produce food,
fiber, fodder, and fuel simultaneously from the same
unit of land.
• A common characteristic feature of all forms of
agroforestry is that a tree component is deliberately
grown or retained in an agricultural setting.
Agroforestry: Definition
• Two characteristics common to all forms of
agroforestry and separate them from other forms of
land use, namely:
– the deliberate growing of woody perennials on the same
unit of land as agricultural crops and/or animals, either in
some form of spatial mixture or sequence.
– there must be a significant interaction (positive and/or
negative) between the woody and non-woody
components of the system, either ecological and/or
economical.
Agroforestry: Definition
• Agroforestry normally involves two or more
species of plants (or plants and animals), at least
one of which is a woody perennial;
• An agroforestry system always has two or more
outputs;
• The cycle of an agroforestry system is always
more than one year; and
• Even the simplest agroforestry system is more
complex, ecologically (structurally and
functionally) and economically, than a monocropping system.
Agroforestry: Types
• All agroforestry systems are characterized by three basic components
namely, the woody perennials (trees/shrubs), the herbaceous plants
(crops, pasture species), and the animals. Based on these three basic
components, agroforestry systems can also be classified for all practical
purposes according to their component composition:
– Agrosilvicultural systems - where agronomic crops are combined with
shrubs/trees on the same unit of land for higher or better-sustained
production of annual crops, fodder, and wood.
– Silvopastoral systems - where range crops and/or animals and trees are
combined for better production of grasses and fodder.
– Agrosilvopastoral systems - food, pasture, and tree/shrub crops are combined
on the same unit of land for the production of grass and browse feed, biomass
for fuelwood and green manure, and food for human consumption.
Agroforestry: Food Production
• Beyond their contribution as a source of gathered food, in many
rural areas trees are incorporated into farming systems. These trees
are highly valued for the foods they produce during strategic
periods; they often help to even fluctuations in food supply.
• In addition, during planting and harvesting seasons tree foods may
provide snacks which supplement the diet when there is less time
available for meal preparation. The fruit, and the leaves in some
cases, are especially valued during the hunger period as well as at
planting time.
• Nutritional studies of home gardens (intensively managed areas
combining perennial and annual species) have shown that they
provide foods throughout the year. Tree foods are particularly
valued as year-round food sources. Jackfruit and coconuts actually
produce year round, whereas mango, durian and mandarin
production coincides with periods of staple food scarcity.
Agroforestry and Community Forestry
• Community forestry encompass all the activities that
are carried out by individual house holds, farmers as
well as activities involving the community as a whole.
• These activities are not only limited to tree planting on
farms and households, but also include activities such
as the use and the management of natural resources
and the supply or provision of tree products from the
surrounding vegetation.
• Community forestry also refers to the promotion of
self-help management and use of trees to sustainably
improve the livelihoods of the local people.
Agroforestry and Community Forestry
• If properly practiced and managed, agroforestry and
community forestry programs can serve as a means to
alleviate problems of soil erosion and land degradation.
They can also provide food, fuelwood, and fodder for the
farm family.
• Agroforestry can be viewed as a strategy to overcome the
lack of success in past tree planting by providing
opportunities for both food and tree production on the
same unit of land, thus reducing competition for this scarce
resource.
• Appreciation of agroforestry comes when we begin to view
trees as plants that promote productivity and we recognize
that when trees are grown together with agricultural crops,
forest products can be more accessible to rural people.
Rotational Farming
• Also known as swidden or “slash & burn” cultivation. An
extensive form of horticulture in which the natural
vegetation is cut, the slash is burned, and crops planted
amongst the ashes.
• Swidden systems require that farmers have more land
available for use than is cultivated in any given year.
• Swidden systems are adaptive in situations in which there is
a relatively low population density, a low level of
technology, and sufficient land to maintain fallow cycles.
• When population densities increase and/or when there is
no longer sufficient land to maintain the minimum fallow
cycle, the system is no longer adaptive.
Rotational Farming
• Under the most basic forms of agriculture, where land
availability allows a relatively low labor strategy to work
effectively, shifting cultivators alternate cropping with
fallow periods in which tree cover is allowed to regenerate
and restore soil fertility. As land pressure increases, forcing
a move toward continuous cultivation, various forms of
intercropping develop.
• Intercropping systems, in which trees and crops are grown
in alternating rows, use the leaves of the trees as green
manure to enrich the soils and enhance crop production.
• However, to be valid under field conditions, intensive
approaches such as this require secure long-term use rights
to land which is a luxury not available to most shifting
cultivators.
Rotational Farming
• The traditional system of production is the shifting cultivation or
slash and burn method. It is characterized by low productivity of
land and labor, long fallow periods of 6-10 years and relatively short
cultivation periods of 1 or 2 years. Upland rice and cassava are the
main crops, although as many as 8-10 different other crops can be
planted in a mixed cropping system.
• The main environmental concern with regards to shifting cultivation
is in the loss of valuable tree species. Normally, primary forest areas
that contain mature tree species and secondary trees are cut and
burned. This farming system reduces forest cover and contributes
to tremendous heat build up on the soil surface. This results in a
large quantity of soil organisms and other organic materials being
destroyed as well as physical changes in the soil. Besides the loss of
tree species and vegetation cover, wildlife is also affected.