Agroforestry integrates agricultural and forestry practices to achieve ecological stability, economic productivity, and rural development, providing essential goods like fuelwood and timber. While widely practiced in tropical regions, its benefits are increasingly recognized in temperate areas, enhancing biodiversity and supporting sustainable land management. India's 2014 national agroforestry policy aims to expand tree cover and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promoting agroforestry projects and improving tree planting initiatives.

1. Agroforestry-Overview
DR.SREEREMYA
FACULTY BIOLOGY SCIENCE

2. • Agroforestry has a high potential for simultaneously
satisfying three important objectives viz., protecting and
also stabilizing the ecosystems; producing a high level of
output of economic goods; and improving the income and
basic materials to the rural population. It has helped in the
rehabilitation of the degraded lands on the one hand and
has increased farm productivity on the other. At present,
agroforestry meets almost half of the demand for
fuelwood, 2/3 of the small timber, approx. 70-80 per cent
wood for plywood, 60 per cent raw material for paper pulp
and approx. 9-11 per cent of the green fodder requirement
of livestock, besides meeting the subsistence needs of the
households for food, fruit, fiber, medicine etc.

3. • However, this will need the development of a mechanism
to reward the rural poor for the environmental services
that they garner to society (Bamikole et al., 2003).
Agroforestry principles and practices have long been
recognized and applied in tropical countries, temperate
countries have lagged behind in this regard. The desire for
more environmentally responsible agricultural practices
and systems has provided an ideal context for developing
and implementing agroforestry in temperate regions.
Agroforestry offers many benefits, including the protection
of crops, livestock, soil and water resources. It also permits
the diversification of agricultural revenues through the
production of timber and non-timber forest products.

4. • Agroforestry practices also enhance landscapes by promoting biodiversity and
carbon sequestration. In short, agroforestry provides an array of environmental
goods and services that mainly support the integrated management of farmland
and rural spaces (Dagar et al., 2001). A variety of agroforestry systems are used
around the world, and they can be classified in a number of different ways
depending on the criteria employed. For example, one classification approach is
based on the type of components involved: silvopastoral systems (production of
livestock and woody plant species), the agrosilvicultural systems (woody plant
species and seasonal plants) and the agrosilvopastoral systems (production of
livestock, woody plant species and seasonal plants).
• COMPONENTS OF AN AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM
• Land
• Agroforestry is not a system of pots on a balcony or in the greenhouse. It is a
system by which land is managed for the benefit of the landowner, the
environment and the long-term welfare of society. While appropriate for all
landholdings, this is an especially key case of hillside farming where agriculture
may pave to rapid loss of soil.

5. • Trees
• In agroforestry, particular attention is placed on multiple purpose trees or
perennial shrubs. The most important of these trees are the legumes because of
their ability to mainly fix nitrogen and thus make it available to the other plants.
The roles of trees on the small farm may include the following:
• • Sources of the fruits, nuts, edible leaves, and other food.
• • Sources of the construction material, posts, lumber, branches for use as wattle (a
fabrication of poles interwoven with the slender branches etc.) and thatching.
• • Sources of the non-edible materials including sap, resins, tannins, insecticides,
and medicinal compounds.
• • Sources of fuel.
• • Beautification.
• • Shade.
• • Soil conservation, especially on the hillsides.
• • Improvement of soil fertility.

6. • In order to plan for the use of trees in the agroforestry systems,
considerable knowledge of their properties is quite necessary.
Desirable information for each species includes its benefits,
adaptability to the local conditions (climate, soil, and stresses), the
size and form of the canopy and root system, and the suitability for
various agroforestry practices. Some of the most common uses of
the trees in agroforestry systems are (Dhyani et al., 2011):
• • Individual trees in the home gardens, around houses, paths, and
public places.
• • Dispersed trees in cropland and pastures.
• • Rows of trees with the crops between (alley cropping).
• • Strips of vegetation along the contours or waterways.
• • Living fences and the borderlines, boundaries.
• • Windbreaks.

7. • Agroforestry is now recognized as a key part of the ‘evergreen revolution’
movement in the country. India launched National Agroforestry Policy in the year
2014 and became the first country in the world to have a National Agroforestry
Policy. The policy is not only seen as crucial to mainly India’s ambitious goal of
achieving 32 per cent tree cover but also to mitigate GHG emissions from the
agriculture sector. After launching the NAP in the year 2014, considerable progress
has been made in terms of putting it into practice. Department of Agriculture
Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC and FW) under the Ministry of Agriculture
and Farmers Welfare (MOA and FW) is also playing a key role in the promotion of
agroforestry (Dhyani et al., 2004). It has taken a policy decision to encompass trees
in all its programmes, and this will significantly aggrandize tree-planting on farms,
especially under schemes funded by the National Mission on Sustainable
Agriculture (NMSA). This has so far been very well approved the funding for the
80,000 ha of new agroforestry projects (pers. comm.). Efforts are on to issue
guidelines on the production and also the supply of high-quality planting material
and the accreditation of nurseries producing MPTS planting material. Until
recently, the felling, transit and processing of trees grown on farms required
approvals and permits from government agencies, and this was quite a significant
impediment to establishing agroforestry systems.