Agrovelarium

Agroforestry systems include both traditional and modern land-use systems where trees are managed together with crops and or/ animal production systems in agricultural settings. Agroforestry is practiced in both irrigated and rain fed conditions where it produces food, fuel, fodder, timber, fertilizer and fibre, contributes to food, nutritional and ecological security, sustains livelihoods, alleviates poverty and promotes productive and resilient cropping and farming environments. Agroforestry also has the potential to enhance ecosystem services through carbon storage, prevention of deforestation, biodiversity conservation, and soil and water conservation. In addition, when strategically applied on a large scale, with appropriate mix of species, agroforestry enables agricultural land to with stand extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts, and climate change.

Agroforestry has significant potential to provide employment to rural and urban population through production, industrial application and value addition ventures. Current estimates show that about 65 % of the country’s timber requirement is met from the trees grown on farms. Agroforestry also generates significant employment opportunities.

It is also recognized that agroforestry is perhaps the only alternative to meeting the target of increasing forest or tree cover to 33 per cent from the present level of less than 25 per cent, as envisaged in the National Forest Policy (1988).

A major role for agroforestry is emerging in the domain of environmental services. Agroforestry is known to have the potential to mitigate the climate change effects through microclimate moderation and natural resources conservation in the short run and through carbon sequestration in the long run. Agroforestry species are known to sequester as much carbon in below ground biomass as the primary forests, and far greater than the crop and grass systems.

Agroforestry systems offer means to address to a significant extent the present challenges of food, nutrition, energy, employment and environmental security. However, appropriate research interventions, adequate investment, suitable extension strategies, incentives to agroforestry practitioners, enabling legal and regulatory environment, marketing of agroforestry produce, post-harvest processing, development of new products, and above all a forward looking National Agroforestry Policy is required to address these issues.