Chandra P. Pokhrel et al.

, IJSID, 2013, 3 (1), 1-7

ISSN:2249-5347

IJSID

International Journal of Science Innovations and Discoveries

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AGROFORESTRY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES Chandra P. Pokhrel1, Sushila Sharma2 and Ram Kailash P. Yadav1* Environment (Pvt.) Ltd. G.P.O. Box No. 23383 Kathmandu, Nepal

Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal; 2School of Natural Resources and Bio

Received: 14-01-2013 Accepted: 11-02-2013

*Corresponding Author

ABSTRACT and shrubs with crops and/or animals in interacting combinations on the same unit of land. A large number of traditional agroforestry systems have been recognized from Agroforestry is the relatively new name for the age-old practice of growing trees

different parts of the world. The structural grouping of agroforestry systems are divided into three types such as agrosilviculture, silvopastoralism and agrosilvopastoralism. Agroforestry has been prevalent as an integrated applied science for addressing many of industrialized nations of tropics or temperate. Agroforestry has numerous direct uses have long been growing a variety of native trees in their farm lands as an agroforestry practice. Keywords: Agroforestry, food security, ecosystem services, livelihood, carbon storage such as source of food, timber, fiber fodder, fuelwood, manure; and significant roles in

the land management and environmental problems found in both developing and Address: Name: Dr. Ram Kailash P. Yadav Place: Kathmandu, Nepal E-mail: rkp.yadav@cdbtu.edu.np conservation and improvement of air, soil and water quality, windbreak and shelter belts as well as potential for carbon sequestration and climate regulation. Farmers in Nepal

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Chandra P. Pokhrel et al., IJSID, 2013, 3 (1), 1-7 for the last three decades as agroforestry, has gained considerable attention in scientific community. Trees and shrubs have traditionally been managed and used on agricultural landscapes around the world for shelter, wood, browse, fruit or nuts and age-old practice of growing trees and shrubs with crops and/or animals in interacting combinations on the same unit of land. perennials are deliberately used on the same land management units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. In agroforestry systems, there are both ecological and economical interactions between different components. The World Agroforestry Centre defines agroforestry as a dynamic, ecologically based, natural sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all levels. The Association for biological interactions created when trees and/or shrubs are deliberately combined with crops and/or livestock. Pragmatic natural resource management. they continue to be essential for these purposes in many developing countries. Agroforestry is relatively new name for the Lundgren and Raintree (1982) define agroforestry as a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody resources management system that, through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and Temperate Agroforestry, AFTA defines it as an intensive land management system that optimizes the benefits from the sequential association of trees and crops or animals to obtain products or services useful to man. Although defined in various systems and practices in different ecological and geographical regions of the world. Fodder and soil fertility improvement A global overview of the current agroforestry situation indicates that there are several examples of agroforestry definition of agroforestry (Torquebiau, 2000) can be simply formulated as: the cultivation of the soil with a simultaneous or ways, the practice encompasses the concept of on-farm and off-farm tree production in support of sustainable land use and technologies, based on indigenous practices, were introduced in various part of the world such as Africa, Asia. Many diverse The art and science of cultivating trees (or other woody perennial plants) in association with crops or animals, known INTRODUCTION

agroforestry systems are found in the tropics, partly because of their favorable climatic conditions and partly because of the socio-economic factors such as human population pressure, availability of labor, smaller land holding size, complex land tenure, and less proximity to markets (Zhaohua et al., 1991, Clarke and Thaman, 1993, Kumar, 2006; Nair, 2007; Nair et al., to fulfill subsistence needs such as food, timber, fodder, bedding materials (litter) to livestock and fuel wood for cooking. The hill farming system features a complementary relationship among crops, trees and livestock. Various species of trees and shrubs grown on farms are an integral component of local economies (Thapa and Paudel, 2000). AGROFORESTRY PRACTICES The history of agroforestry is incredible. It was born several thousand years ago as an agricultural activity when man 2008). These systems are quite prevalent in the temperate regions as well (Reisner et al., 2007; Rigueiro-Rodrguez et al., 2008). Farmers in Nepal have long been growing a variety of native trees in their farm lands to maintain land productivity and

started to practice slash and burn (shifting) cultivation, or as the art of utilizing trees to restore soil fertility during a fallow trees (Nair, 1993) and as such combining the rowing of trees and crops on the same piece of land. Agroforestry practices management and environmental problems found in both developing and industrialized nations. Many agroforestry systems International Journal of Science Innovations and Discoveries, Volume 3, Issue 1, January-February 2013

period. In clearing forested areas and leaving them fallow after a few cropping cycles, it was the custom to plant, sow or spare reviewed include fodder shrubs, fertilizer trees for soil improvement, fruit and vegetable production-processing and woodlots. At present, agroforestry is accepted as an integrated applied science that has the potential for addressing many of the land

lend themselves to the concept of ecological engineering, whereby the ecological processes are used to solve engineering problems in such a way that ecosystems are designed, constructed, and managed for both environmental and societal benefits. practices that constitute the multitude of location-specific systems in the tropical and temperate regions are listed in Table 1. specific local example of the association of the components, characterized by the plant species and their management, and

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environmental and socioeconomic factors; thus, location specificity is an important characteristic of these systems. The major delineating the area influenced by trees in a mixed stand of trees and crops. In simultaneous systems, the entire area occupied listed as under agroforestry. Moreover, 5% of the worlds forests are managed as agroforests; given that the total area under agroforestry in the world can be estimated as 1023 million ha (Nair et al., 2009). Table 1. Major agroforestry practices in tropical and temperate regions (Nair et al., 2008). Agroforestry Pratices Description Tropical Agroforestry Alley cropping (hedgerow fast-growing, preferably leguminous, woody species grown in crop fields; the woody intercropping) species pruned periodically at low height (<1.0 m) to reduce shading of crops; the pruning applied as mulch into the alleys as a source of organic matter and nutrients, or used as animal fodder Homegardens intimate multistory combinations of a large number of various trees and crops in homesteads; livestock may or may not be present Improved fallow fast-growing, preferably leguminous, woody species planted and left to grow during fallow phases between cropping years for site improvement; woody species may yield economic products Multipurpose trees (MPTs) on fruit trees and other MPTs scattered haphazardly or planted in some systematic farms and rangelands arrangements in crop or animal production fields; trees provide fruits, fuelwood, fodder, timber, etc. Silvopasture: integrating trees in animal production systems: grazing systems cattle grazing on pasture under widely spaced or scattered trees cut and carry system (protein stall feeding of animals with high quality fodder from trees grown in blocks on farms banks) Shaded perennial crop growing shade-tolerant species such as cacao and coffee under or in between overstory systems shade, timber, or other commercial tree crops. Shelterbelts and windbreaks use of trees to protect fields from wind damage, sea encroachment, floods, etc. Alley cropping Taungya growing agricultural crops during the early stages of establishment of forestry plantations

A large number of traditional agroforestry systems have been recognized from different parts of the world. Each is a

by multistrata systems such as homegardens, shaded perennial systems and intensive tree-intercropping situations can be forest is 4000 million ha (FAO, 2007). The area under agroforestry in forest lands is 200 million ha. Thus, the total area under

As far as estimating the area under agroforestry is concerned, a major difficulty is the lack of proper procedures for

Riparian buffer strips Silvopasture Windbreaks

Forest farming

Temperate agroforestry trees planted in single or grouped rows in herbaceous (agricultural or horticultural) crops in the wide alleys between the tree rows utilizing forested areas for producing specialty crops that are sold for medicinal, ornamental, or culinary uses strips of perennial vegetation (tree/shrub/grass) planted between croplands/pastures and streams, lakes, wetlands, ponds, etc. combining trees with forage (pasture or hay) and livestock production row trees around farms and fields, planted and managed as part of crop or livestock operation to protect crops, animals, and soil from wind hazards

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such as the vast areas of degraded forestland. For example, IPCC (2000) estimated that 630 million ha of unproductive 2010 and 586,000 Mg C y1 by 2040. TYPES OF AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM The basic components of agroforestry (trees, crops and animals) have been used to describe structural categories Table 2. Types of agroforestory in three structural categories (Nair, 1983).

croplands and grasslands could be converted to agroforestry worldwide, with the potential to sequester 391,000 Mg C y 1 by within agroforestry since its origin as a science as agrosilviculture, silvopastoralism and agrosilvopastoralism representing the mixing of crops and trees, trees and animals; and crops, trees and animals, respectively (Combe, 1982). Later, Nair (1983) described agroforestry systems in three structural categories (Table 2). Agrosilvicultural (production of tree crops, forests-horticultural or agricultural plantation, with herbaceous crops, to fulfill the productive and protective roles within the land management systems) Silvopastoral (integrate woody perennials with pasture and / or livestock) Agrosilvopastoral (combine trees as herbaceous crops with animals and / or pastures) Hedgerow, intercropping, improve fallow species in shifting cultivation, multistory multipurpose crop combination, multipurpose tree and shrubs on farm lands, shade tree for commercial plantation crops, integration crop combination with plantation crops, agroforestry fuel wood production systems, shelterbelts and windbreaks. Multipurpose woody perennials provide the fodder (protein bank), living fences around the grazing land or are retained as commercial shade/browse/ fruit trees/ in pasture lands. Use of woody hedgerows for browse, mulch or green manure and for soil conservation, crops/tree/ livestock mixed around homesteads.

This projection is, of course, tentative. It does not include areas that could potentially be brought under agroforestry,

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literatures, it has so far failed to translate into a pragmatic and widely accepted classification. These categories are either too vague or too restrictive. It can be argued that the original distinction between the agrosilvicultural, silvopastoral and categories are proposed (Table 3).

Table 3 Classification of Agroforestry in six structural categories (Torquebiau, 2000). Crops under tree cover scattered trees in cropland, shade trees in plantation crops, parklands, crops in orchards, plantation crops combinations Agroforests agroforestry homegardens, village forest gardens, mixed woodlots, agroforestry buffer zones Agroforestry in a windbreaks and shelterbelts, boundary planting, live hedges, living fences,soil conservation linear arrangement hedgerows, alley cropping, roadside planting, woody strips Animal agroforestry grazing or browsing in wooded or forested land, tree planting in rangeland animal feeding with collected, browse, browse banks Sequential shifting cultivation, tree-improved fallows, taungya agroforestry Minor agroforestry Sericulture, lac production, apiculture with trees, tree-based aquaculture techniques Agroforestry System in Nepal

agrosilvopastoral categories has created more confusion than clarity, (Torquebiau, 2000) and therefore, six structural

Although this structural grouping of agroforestry into three categories is regularly mentioned in the agroforestry

parts of the country from tropical to sub-alpine (100 m - 4000 m a.s.l.) differ with climate and altitudinal gradients. The husbandry. Livestock are integral component in providing manure for maintaining crop fertility, farm income and protein for International Journal of Science Innovations and Discoveries, Volume 3, Issue 1, January-February 2013

dominant farming systems comprise three closely integrated components: crop production, animal husbandry and tree

Various fodder trees have been grown in Nepal since time immemorial. The types of fodder trees grown in different

household nutrition. Cultivation of fodder trees by farmers in their homegarden, unirrigated land (Bari), large slanting land

(Kalnas) etc. is very common in the midhills and to some extent, in the high hills, More than 170 species of tree, shrubs and October to February when other green forages, pastures and other feed resources get depleted and a scarcity of feed and forage occur (Khanal and Subbha, 2001). However, homegarden is traditionally very prevalent in the Terai region. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF AGROFORESTRY Food and Nutritional Security

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vine contribute to the supply of fodder, of which 40 species are traditionally cultivated by farmers. These are mostly used from

production in two ways: directly by providing edible products such as fruits, nuts, rhizomes, leaves, and tubers; and indirectly by supporting food production through increasing the soils ability to support agriculture. Torquebiau (1992) concluded that number of fruit-producing trees are integral parts of traditional homestead and other agroforestry farming systems with their similar study, species diversity of wild edible plants were documented and compared in between two VDCs of Rupandehi

dietary supplies from homegardens accounted for 3 44% of the total calorie and 4 32% of the protein intake. A large characteristic multistrata canopies in many developing countries. Although several of these fruit trees have not been studied scientifically, they have significant contributions to food and nutritional security. A total of 32 wild edible plant species belonging to 23 families have been documented from homegardens of Gulmi district, western Nepal (Shrish et al. 2011). In a district, western Nepal (Shrish et al. 2011). Another group of underexploited species of immense cultural and economic values are the medicinal plants. Some well-known agroforestry tree species grown on farms for uses such as fodder, food, fiber or boundaries and pathways or in lines to form terraces, thus reducing erosion, improving soil fertility and providing firewood. food security. Cultural Landscapes fuelwood, are also used for their medicinal values. Some fodder shrubs are protein-rich legumes that are grown along By increasing the soil nutrients, these practices can potentially help to increase agricultural productivity, thereby improving

Agroforestry is a component of agrobiodiversity. The multi-use trees in agroforestry systems play a major role in food

opportunity to earn sustainable, stable livelihoods will help conserve the planets biodiversity. As much as 90% of the biodiversity resources in the tropics are located in human-dominated landscapes (Nair et al. 2008). When landscapes are areas; expansion of agroforestry systems into traditional farmlands can increase biodiversity in working landscapes and may species. Carbon Storage and Economic Security

increasingly being fragmented and remaining patches of natural vegetation are reduced to isolated habitat islands due to and provide greater landscape connectivity. Agroforestry systems thus, can reduce exploitation of nearby or distant forest

The well-being of the land is directly linked with the well-being of its inhabitants. Providing rural farmers with the

human activities, mixed species agroforestry systems could play a significant role in maintaining a higher level of biodiversity

increase species diversity of trees in farming systems. In addition, agroforestry helps to preserve germplasm of sensitive aboveground plant biomass and belowground biomass (roots, soil microorganisms). Agroforestry systems, in one hand, are pressure) and carbon substitution (reducing fossil fuel burning by producing fuel wood). In temperate regions, agroforestry International Journal of Science Innovations and Discoveries, Volume 3, Issue 1, January-February 2013

believed to have a higher potential to sequester carbon than pastures or field crops. In addition to sequestering C in biomass and soil, these systems can contribute to both carbon conservation (conservation of carbon stocks in forests by alleviating the practices have been estimated to have the potential to store C in the range of 15198 Mg C ha-1. In the tropics, agroforestry

Carbon sequestration involves the net removal of CO 2 from atmosphere and its storage in long-lived pools such as

systems are estimated to have helped to regain 35% of the original C stock of the cleared forest, compared to only 12% by

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croplands and pastures. It has also been estimated that an increase of 1 ton (Mg) of soil carbon pool of degraded cropland soils developing countries. This offers an economic opportunity for subsistence farmers in developing countries, the major environmental benefit to the global community at large as well. Soil Productivity and Protection practitioners of agroforestry, for selling the C sequestered through agroforestry to industrialized countries. It can be an Agricultural farms in many parts of the developing world generally suffer from the continuous depletion of nutrients

may increase crop yields by 20-40 kg ha-1 (Nair et al., 2008). On the other, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the

Kyoto Protocol allows industrialized countries with a GHG reduction commitment to invest in mitigation projects in

as farmers harvest without fertilizing adequately or fallowing the land. The presence of deep-rooted agroforestry system can contribute to enhanced soil nutritional and physical conditions as well as higher soil microbiological activities. Research results show that agroforestry systems increase nitrogen input by N2-fixing trees (NFTs), enhance availability of nutrients resulting from production and decomposition of tree biomass, and improve uptake and utilization of nutrients from deeper to erosion, salinity, fertility depletion, and desertification (Brown, 2004). Furthermore, trees used as windbreaks around hazards of erosion and desertification as well as conserve soil and water. Increase in Quality of Water and Environment layers of soils by deep-rooted trees (Nair et al., 2008). An estimate suggests that approx. 1.9 billion ha of land is degraded due potentially help farmers improve their soils and incomes, thereby improving food security and contribute to reduce the agricultural fields reduce soil erosion caused by wind and water. By providing nutrients to crops, agroforestry system can Major sources of surface water pollution are nutrients such as phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) that are lost from soils

of fertilized agricultural and forestry operations, particularly in coarse-textured, poorly drained soils where drainage water ultimately mixes with surface water. Nutrient-leaching rates from soils under agroforestry systems where trees are a major nutrient loading could be a substantial environmental benefit of agroforestry in heavily fertilized agricultural landscapes. CONCLUSION

component can be lower than those from treeless systems. The water quality enhancement resulting from the reduction of

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