How Agro-forestry has emerged as a one for all sustainable solution
Agro-forestry by definition refers to practice of growing of trees and crops, and sometime animals, in interacting combinations on a given patch of land.
This system was brought into the sceneries of modern land-use consequent to the realization of the adverse ecological and social impacts of input-intensive mono-cultural systems that were promoted before in commercial agricultural and forestry production.
Agro forestry is a land-use systems that are structurally and functionally complex than either crop or tree monocultures results in greater efficiency of resource (nutrients, light, and water) capture and utilization. This results in greater structural diversity that involves tighter nutrient cycles.
While the diversity above- and below ground provides more system stability and resilience at site level, the systems inherently provides connectivity with forests and other landscape features at landscape and watershed levels.
These ecological pillars of agro forestry systems provide ecological services such as soil conservation, carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, and enhancement of water quality. Carbon Sequestration
Agro-forestry systems extensively help keep carbon in the terrestrial ecosystem and out of the atmosphere by preventing further deforestation and by accumulating biomass and soil carbon. In biodiversity conservation, benefits of agro-forestry systems to terrestrial carbon conservation come from its preventive effect. The area under natural forests will not be cleared because farmers can make continuous use of land already cleared through improved agro-forestry systems. According to some estimates one hectare of humid tropical forests contains on average 160t C (carbon) ha−1 in the aboveground biomass . When these forests are slashed and burned, most of it is emitted to the atmosphere, either immediately during the burn, or gradually through the decomposition of unburned logs and branches.
Keeping this carbon resource which is about 96 billion tons of carbon in-situ in the remaining humid tropical forest biomass is of critical importance.
Complex agro-forestry systems of long duration, such as rubber and damar of Sumatra and multi-strata systems throughout the humid tropics, can sequester carbon in their tree biomass where it remains for decades. In addition, agro-forests act as sinks for methane emitted by adjacent paddy fields, thereby neutralizing these greenhouse gas emissions at the landscape scale.
The greatest potential for carbon sequestration is in soils that have been depleted of carbon and nutrients. The carbon can be sequestered in woody biomass and nutrient t-depleted soils by a combination of nutrient recapitalization, erosion control, boundary tree plantings, and woodlot or orchard establishment.
The overall magnitude of carbon sequestration by agro-forestry is considered among the highest compared with other land use systems by climate change researchers.
The emphasis of agro forestry in developing countries is on alleviating poverty, securing nutritional security, and arresting land degradation, while its primary role in industrialized nations is on providing vital ecosystem services.
The Government of India launched the National Agro forestry Policy in 2014 owing to the potential of agro-forestry as a pro-poor, multi-benefit land management. The Policy enables institutional arrangements at national level to promote agro forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, simplify regulations related to harvesting, felling and transportation of trees grown on farmlands, developing a Market Information System for agro forestry, ensuring access to quality planting material as well as institutional credit and insurance cover to agro forestry practitioners. New Agro-forestry plan 2020 envisages to make wood based industries self-reliant on raw material through agro-forestry.
Agro- forestry is practiced globally by small land holding farmers. Off lately , public–private partnerships (PPPs) are viewed as an effective way of facilitating benefits to smallholders from market opportunities. Several well-established agro-forestry products, and others that are considered intermediary and underdeveloped to have the potential to bring livelihood and environmental benefits through development of further supply chain.. Several case studies of agroforestry Public-Private Partnership models provide examples of how various public and private sector organizations are contributing to enhance market supply of agro-forestry products.
The participation of industries using the agro forestry products is most vital to promote agro forestry. For example, success of agro forestry in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP is a case in point. This has been possible due research and development works of ITC using pulp for paper and Wimco using Poplar trees for match box making into developing clones of Eucalyptus and Poplar.
Income returns from industry linked agro-forestry are direct and increased source of income for the farmers. Availability of trees resources outside forest land and choice of species is critical to the expansion of wood based industry. As such, tree cover in the agro-forestry plantation is expected to increase; thereby increasing carbon stored in them Carbon stored in trees outside forest is also set in increase. It will be further benefiting the farmers once the mechanism of carbon trading is evolved and the reward of carbon sequestration is passed on to them.
In Andhra Pradesh, farmers have formed agro-market communities. Through these, the farmers supply raw materials to wood based industries. Cashew, Mango, Subabool , Nilgiri and Casuarina are grown to supply to paper, panel boards (medium density fibre board, particle boards, plywood) and other wood based industries. These trees in the agricultural land and plantations ensure financial security against the uncertainty of rain-fed annual crops. They also provide employment opportunities to the rural youth.
Farmers in Anand, a non-forest district of Gujrat, grow species such as Neem, Deshi babool , Sharu , Ardusa , Teak, Subabool, Bengali babool apart from Nilgiri. Tree plantation and agro forestry has turned Anand into district in India with highest density of trees in non-forest land. With unique market system operational in the area, timber trade and export of wood are excellent in Anand. The availability and variety of raw have enhanced the expansion of large scale timber based industries, evolving Anand into a model district of rural development.
In several states in India, carbon stored in trees outside the forest is much more than the Carbon stored in the forest cover of the state. Industry linked agro-forestry play an important role in climate change mitigation especially due to its tree component. For example, ITC’s 1.6 lakh hector plantation(2014) has potential to reduce 26.24 tons of from the atmosphere over a harvest cycle of 4 years . As per CDM ITC Forestry Project (2001-2031)- total estimated of net anthropogenic Green House Gases removal by plantations 17,33,753 tonnes of CO2 e.
Agro-forestry has come up as a sustainable method of cultivation og agriculture and forest crops and have benefits that are both economical and ecological.
