Agroforestry for Sustainability of Lower-Input Land-Use Systems

Agriculture and forestry are too often treated separately, yet these two sectors are often interwoven on the landscape and share many common goals. The age-old practice of growing crops and trees together was ignored or bypassed in the single-commodity paradigm of agricultural and forestry development. Thanks to 25 years of efforts, agroforestry the integration of multipurpose trees into farming systems-has now become a robust, science-based, integrated discipline. Agroforestry offers a unique set of opportunities for alleviating poverty and arresting land degradation, and providing ecosystem services in both low-income and industrialized nations. Improvement and exploitation of the large number of fruit trees and medicinal plants is but one of several promising opportunities for enhancing the food and nutritional security without causing the environmental hazards that are characteristic of input-intensive land-use systems. These agroforestry practices are particularly suitable for resource-limited conditions and lower-input situations, which cover an estimated 1.9 billion hectares of land and 800 million people in developing countries.