Basics of Agroforestry

agroforestry or agriculture with trees is an old land use concept as a more sustainable production system agroforestry is a form of intercropping that combines agricultural pastoral and forestry elements in one area [Music] the forestry elements can be different types of woody perennials such as trees and shrubs interactions between trees and crops or livestock are important at different scales in fields on farms and at landscape level trees can be arranged in rows in grids as contours or dispersed randomly [Music] we broadly distinguish agri-silvi cultural systems that combine trees with crops and silvopastoral systems that combine trees

with livestock if all three elements trees crops and animals are combined we call it an agro-silver pastoral system benefits and drawbacks of agroforestry are as diverse as its systems you can imagine that complex agroforestry systems are difficult to establish they require much knowledge skills and manual labor throughout the year depending on the type of trees and agricultural elements and their spatial and temporal arrangement competition for light nutrients and water can become excessive and cause yield reductions of individual components plants also do not grow well together also known as bad neighbors or allelopathy payback of investment

can sometimes be long but the benefits of multi-functional agroforestry systems can exceed simplified or mono-cropping systems with appropriate planning and spatial arrangements these systems provide biodiversity and carbon sequestration enhanced resilience and sustained production they can support higher cumulative land productivity and if arranged well the different root systems of perennials and crops or grasses can use nutrients and water in the soil more efficiently trees can improve microclimate reduce water and wind erosion and improve soil fertility by trapping nutrients building soil organic matter and stimulating soil life furthermore leguminous trees fix nitrogen that can be used by

crops lowering fertilizer needs pesticides can also be reduced as intercropping generally lowers the incidence of pests and diseases in silvopastures trees reduce heat stress for livestock increase their well-being and productivity and provide fodder in times of scarcity you see establishing agroforestry requires careful planning and design at the early stage structured agroforestry requires more labor thought and money but often provides a better cost benefits ratio in the long term if managed well agroforestry systems are productive for a long time and provide farmers with multiple services and diverse revenues throughout the year they result in a highly

resilient land use strategy which can withstand extreme weather events and climate change and reduce risks for farmers in case of crop failure you