Role of Agroforestry in Enhancing Land and Livelihoods

Table of Contents

• What is Agroforestry? Definition and Overview
• Importance of Agroforestry
  • Environmental Benefits
  • Economic Benefits
  • Social Benefits
• Types of Agroforestry Systems
  • Agrisilviculture System
  • Silvopastoral System
  • Agrosilvopastoral System
• Success Stories of Agroforestry in India
  • Agroforestry in Araku Valley
  • BCKV’s Agroforestry Initiative
• Conclusion

What is Agroforestry? Definition and Overview

Agroforestry is the inclusion of woody perennials like trees, shrubs, bamboos, palms, etc. with herbaceous plants or livestock within a specific spatial arrangement, through rotational practices, or both. In simple terms, agroforestry is basically the intentional growing of crops with trees. Components that form the systematic background of land use systems, such as forestry, agriculture, land resource management, animal husbandries, and fisheries, etc., are the basis of agroforestation.

Agroforestry gained the attention of international scientists in the late 1970s. They embraced its potential benefits and recognized it as a practice in search of science. However, agroforestry has been practiced as a traditional land use and livelihood option since ages in India.

Let’s understand the reasons behind this purposeful combined farming and its importance.

Importance of Agroforestry

The Indian economy is currently facing many challenges, mainly due to its overpopulation, such as increasing demands of food and fodder, fuel needs, degradation of natural resources, climate change, etc. All of these challenges are directly or indirectly affecting the agricultural system or allied agricultural systems. Certain issues like soil erosion, deterioration of farms, surface and groundwater pollution, and decreased biodiversity are emerging due to these challenges. When we address these issues, agroforestry appears to be a sustainable land management option. Agroforestry is also a climate-smart production system, as it is more successful than monocropping when it comes to mitigating the impacts of climate change. It also meets the bio-energy, biofuel, and fuelwood demands of the nation successfully.

Let’s examine the benefits of agroforestry for understanding the importance of agroforestry.

Environmental Benefits

• Improved soil fertility: Agroforestry plays a vital role in improving soil fertility and soil conservation with the help of the biological nitrogen fixation abilities of multiple trees. It contributes the organic matter through leaves, litter, and root exudates, which in response leads to enhancements in soil fertility and structure.
• Soil Conservation: Agroforestry systems on arable lands focus on planting trees and woody perennials on field bunds, terrace risers, and terrace edges for utilizing them as intercrops in the form of hedgerow plantation or alley cropping. Integrating trees like this serves as a natural reservoir for nutrients from deeper soil layers, boosting the soil with biofertilizers and retaining moisture, which improves the soil productivity.
• Water Conservation: Agroforestry systems have the potential to conserve water and improve water efficiency when merged with watershed programs. Tree plantation reduces water run-off to more than 50 percent, providing more water availability to farmers.
• Fuelwood Sources: The primary products of agroforestry in India, like timber, fodder, etc., are used as primary sources for generating fuelwood in rural areas.
• Carbon Sequestration: Agroforestry, being an ecologically and environmentally sustainable land use, assures mitigating the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through carbon sequestration.
• Biodiversity Conservation: By merging trees in already-farmed lands, agroforestry creates new ecological niches that support higher biodiversity in some groups of birds, insects, or rodents when compared to monocultures.

Economic Benefits

• High Yield: With the help of appropriate tree selection while planting, agroforestry systems positively increase the yield growth of fruits, timber, and crops.
• Surplus Income: The implementation of agroforestry provides surplus income from diverse livelihood sources in addition to income generated from crop production. It also provides insurance during situations of crop failures, as there is assured income from additional sources like trees and cattle.
• Employment Opportunities: Agroforestry systems require additional labor for multiple practices; therefore, it generates employment opportunities in rural areas, leading to reduced poverty.

Social Benefits

• Food & Nutritional Security: Agroforestry incorporates fruit-bearing trees, vegetables, staple crops, medicinal plants, etc., altogether proving diversity in the production. This diversity leads to the improvement of dietary and nutritional intake of people, especially in rural areas, providing nutritional and food security.
• Women Empowerment: Agroforestry helps in the improvement of the social status of women as it provides them with a large number of financial opportunities.

Types of Agroforestry Systems

On the basis of nature of components, agroforestry can be classified mainly into three types of systems:

• Agrisilviculture System
• Silvopastoral System
• Agrosilvopastoral System

Agrisilviculture System

The term agrisilviculture is made up of two different words, agriculture and silviculture. Agriculture means the production of crops, and silviculture is defined as the plantation of trees on a vast area of land. So, agrisilviculture is an agroforestry practice in which trees are planted with crops on the same piece of land. However, the plantation can be performed simultaneously, meaning each component occupies a different space but is grown at the same time, or the plantation can be done rotationally, where one component replaces another sequentially. Alley cropping of nitrogen-fixing trees like Sesbania sp. with maize can be an example of simultaneous practice whereas, legume trees like Calliandra sp. can be grown in rotation with maize.

Silvopastoral System

Silvopastoral system is the practice of agroforestry where shrubs, pastures, or animals, and trees are grown together in the same piece of land. Traditionally, it involved grazing livestock on wooded land where trees in pastures provided shade and timber. It is one of the most prominent alternatives to revert the degradation of grasslands by reviving their fertility with the inclusion of legumes that fix nitrogen levels and trees having taproots that use deepground layers, which leads to recycling of nutrients. The fodder is grown for animal nutrition, trees are grown for leaves, fruits, wood, etc., and shrubs are grown for medicines or other purposes. The major difference between agrisilviculture and the silvopastoral system is that here the crops are not food but fodder for animals.  

Agrosilvopastoral System

Agrosilvopastoral system is one of the ancient practices of agroforestry followed in India primarily in southern states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu and north-eastern states like Tripura, West Bengal, etc., as it performs well in high rainfall regions. Agrosilvopastoral system involves a deliberate integration between trees, crops, and animals in the same piece of land. Home gardens are the prime example of the Agrosilvopastoral system. Different bushes, trees, and plants are grown altogether in random arrangements with animals like cows, buffalos, goats, sheeps, etc., in it. The waste of animals and homes is used as manure for crops and the waste material of crops and plants is used as fodder for animals creating a balanced environment.  

Success Stories of Agroforestry in India

India and Indian farmers realizing the potential of agroforestry have introduced various projects for unveiling its benefits. Let’s explore some of the successful agroforestry examples for understanding its impact:

Agroforestry in Araku Valley

Agroforestry in Araku Valley Project was established in the early 2000s and currently is spread over a total of six districts in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. In this project, the practice of afforestation on degraded lands is used to control soil erosion and water run-off, which will eventually improve the carbon sequestration potential in degraded lands. The project has successfully incorporated partnerships between corporations, social enterprises, and small farmers. Resource-poor farmers are encouraged to raise tree plantations on farmlands. They are also linked to international carbon markets. The partnership of private industries and small-scale farmers delivers additional income from the sale of carbon credits generated on the degraded lands through plantation activities. This project not only has uplifted the livelihoods of marginalized farmers but also has positively improved the environmental challenges.

BCKV’s Agroforestry Initiative

West Bengal faces many agricultural challenges like land degradation, water scarcity, and declining soil fertility. Noticing these challenges, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya has actively participated in agroforestry practices. BCKV, in collaboration with soil conservation Wing, Directorate of Agriculture and government of West Bengal converted 32 hectares of culturable waste red and lateritic land into greenery with cashew-based agroforestry. It involves 269 beneficiaries of 52 local tribal Santhal communities at Gaighata village.   

Conclusion

Looking at the agroforestry examples and the benefits covered in the blog, we can understand the impact of agroforestry and the potential it holds for the upliftment of India. The government of India, realizing the same, launched the National Agroforestry Policy of India in 2014. The policy aims to uplift productivity, profitability, and sustainability with the help of archeological land use system. Focusing on the policy, the goods and services provided by agroforestry, the Indian government has highlighted and prioritized the promotion of agroforestry and private forestry in the Union Budget of Government of India (FY-2022-23).