Chapter 7 Agroforestry
by Prajna Kasargodu Anebagilu and Cory Whitney
Agroforestry refers to a land-use system that integrates trees or shrubs into agricultural land and/or livestock farming. By diversifying production it can generate social, economic and environmental benefits.Unlike conventional agriculture, which often separates production and ecology, agroforestry seeks to harness the interactions between these components to improve both environmental and economic outcomes. Agroforestry is increasingly recognized as one of the most promising land use options for addressing multiple Sustainable Development Goals and confronting the challenges of climate change mitigation, food security, soil degradation, decline of biodiversity and desertification.
7.1 Materials
The following three videos from Prof. Eike Luedeling will give you a first overview of what agroforestry is, what it can contribute, and what it looks like in practice:
7.1.4 Agroforestry in the European Union
Also go through the following briefing document, developed for the European Parliament, which outlines the current situation and legal setting of agroforestry in Europe: Agroforestry in the European Union
You can also find this on eCampus.
7.1.5 Questions (or rather “assignments” today)
- Other than the three basic types of agroforestry what other classifications do you know? Name three.
- Name seven reasons why farmers may benefit from introducing agroforestry on their farm.
- Name three constraints to the implementation of agroforestry in Europe.
7.2 Instructions
This week, building on the lecture you have listened to, we will perform a placement activity to understand different types of agroforestry systems and explore how to design them across a larger landscape considering their benefits, challenges, and inherent design features.
We will then take a closer look at the agroforestry decision-support tools developed at HortiBonn under the ReForest project.
7.3 Literature for discussion
We’re discussing the following paper:
You can also find it on eCampus.
In addition - this is optional - we encourage you to take a look at the following materials:
A paper on the perceptions of various stakeholders across Europe towards agroforestry: Garcia de Jalon et al. 2018: How is agroforestry perceived in Europe? An assessment of positive and negative aspects by stakeholders
A selection of two chapters of a brand new textbook on agroforestry. This is the long-awaited second edition of the “An Introduction to Agroforestry” - a seminal textbook by PK Nair et al. that was first published in 1991: An Introduction to Agroforestry and the latest edition (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-75358-0)
7.4 Term paper topics
The challenges of agroforestry modeling
Modeling agroforestry systems are more complex than monocultures, so they have presented considerable challenges to the modeling community. This term paper outlines these challenges and reviews how they have been addressed in previous modeling attempts.
Barriers to agroforestry adoption in Germany (or elsewhere)
Many experts agree that agroforestry systems can offer environmental, economic and social benefits to farmers. Yet adoption rates often remain low due to an array of barriers that keep farmers from integrating trees with other agricultural practices. This term paper reviews these barriers and proposed ideas for overcoming them.
Agroforestry in Germany (or elsewhere) - present distribution expansion potential
Agroforestry has gained traction in many places, yet its spread in Germany (and many other countries) has been slow. This term paper reviews what types of systems exist and where they can be found (possibly using case studies). It also speculates on the potential distribution within this geographic region.