Agroforestry: Practices, History, and Issues

• Agroforestry involves the deliberate integration of woody perennials with agricultural crops and/or animals on the same land management unit.
• It acknowledges the ecological and economic interactions among different components of the system.

Problems Addressed by Agroforestry

• Climate Change
• Land conversion from forest to industrial, subdivision, and recreational areas
• Land degradation and loss of forest cover
• Irresponsible mining
• Increase in upland population

Issues Affecting Agroforestry

• Laws and policies including implementation and legal constraints
• Lack of coordination between governmental sectors
• Low adoption rate of agroforestry projects
• Lack of budget allocation
• Land issues

History of Agroforestry

• In Europe, forests were clear-cut, burned, and cultivated for food crops until the Middle Ages.
• Tropical American societies recreated forest-like conditions to utilize forest ecosystem benefits.
• The Hanunoo people of the Philippines practiced "shifting" cultivation.
• The Yoruba people of western Nigeria mixed herbaceous, shrub, and tree crops to conserve human energy.

Agroforestry Definitions

• Trees on farm includes combinations of trees with crops, livestock, or both.
• Integrated agriculture and forestry combines agriculture and forestry.
• Economic and ecological integration of sustainability and supporting livelihoods by increasing income, diversifying products, reducing costs, and mitigating price risks.
• Land use: The different ways land uses are combined with the function of forest trees make up an agroforestry system.

The 4 "I"s of Agroforestry

• Intentional: The combination of trees with crops/livestock is purposeful.
• Integrated: Trees are integrated with crops/livestock on the same land and managed as a unit.
• Interactive: Takes advantage of biophysical and physical interactions among components.
• Intensive: Needs intensive management to maintain productivity and protective functions.

Basic Concept of Agroforestry

• Involves two or more species of plants (or plants and animals), at least one of which is a woody perennial
• An agroforestry system always has two or more outputs
• The cycle of an agroforestry system is always more than one year
• Even the simplest agroforestry system is more complex than a mono-cropping system.
• Significant interaction (positive/negative) between woody and non-woody components.

Criteria of Good Agroforestry Design

• Productivity: Includes increased output of tree products, improved crop yields, and increased labor efficiency.
• Sustainability: Can achieve and maintain conservation and fertility goals indefinitely.
• Adoptability: Acceptability.

What Agroforestry Is Not

• Monoculture: It is not monoculture farming or a mix of monoculture crops.
• Solution to all: Not necessarily be the solution to all challenges faced by farmers or local communities.
• Something New: Farmers have been using agroforestry techniques for centuries.

Basis of Classification of Agroforestry Systems

• Based on structural, functional, socio-economic, and ecological spread.

Structural Basis

• Agrisilvicultural systems consist of trees with crops
• Silvopastoral systems involve trees with animals and/or pasture
• Agrosilvopastoral systems combine trees, crops, and animals or pasture

Arrangement of Components

• Spatial including horizontal and vertical aspects, such as arrangement of woody perennials, non-woody vegetation, and livestock.
• Temporal refers to the time and manner crops are cultivated, either simultaneously or sequentially.

Types of Spatial Arrangement

• Dense mixed stands (homegarden)
• Sparse mixed stands (silvopastoral systems)
• Zonal or strips

Functional Basis

• Productive Role: Includes output usually for single commodity for sale.
• Protective Role: Protecting and maintaining the site to perpetuate/continue its productive capacity.

Socio-Economic Basis

• Commercial: Production of output, usually a single commodity for sale, is the major aim
• Subsistence: Land use is directed at satisfying basic needs and managed mainly by the owner

Temporal Arrangement

• Concomitant: Components stay together for a certain period, e.g., Taungya system.
• Intermittent: Annual crops are grown, e.g., rice under coconut trees.

Ecological Spread

• Suitability of the systems on certain environmental conditions for arid/semi-arid regions, tropical highlands, and lowland humid tropics.

Role of Trees in Agroforestry

• Trees and woody perennials are the basic feature of agroforestry and distinguish production systems from pure agriculture.

Productive Role of Trees

• Wood: Firewood/Fuel, timber, pulpwood
• Non-wood: Fruits, Leaf meal/fodder/forage, Resin/latexes, Medicinal plants, Food

Protective Roles of Trees

• Restore and maintain soil fertility.
• Prevents soil erosion and promotes water conservation.
• Modifies microclimate.
• Acts as a wind break
• Serves as live fence.

Physical and Chemical Properties of Trees

• Improves soil structure and water holding capacity through organic matter accumulation
• Provides additional soil nutrients via litterfall, nitrogen fixation, and atmospheric inputs.
• Trees use nitrogen fixing.

Indigenous Agroforestry System

• Agroforestry systems that have been in existence for generations.
• Practiced by communities living close to the forest or developed by farmers themselves in a certain locality.

Fallow System/Swidden Agriculture

• Agroforestry fallow system or swidden cultivation is the oldest form of agroforestry.
• Land is cleared, burned, and planted with agricultural crops; later it is left under fallow.
• The land left after crop cultivation becomes unproductive and is usually covered with vegetation
• Key to sustainability is the length of the fallow.

The Fallow System of Ikalahans

• Indigenous people in the province of Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines, known for combining cultivation (2-3 years) and fallow (17 years).
• Farmers practice soil erosion control called "gen-gen".
• Known for their environmentally sustainable practices such as day-og and gengen composting techniques
• Pang-omis expedite the fallow period
• Balkah contour line of deep rooted plants which trap eroded topsoil

System of the Hanunuos

• Found in Mindoro Oriental and practice a very intensive intercropping system.
• They practice Intercropping of annuals under perennials
• Has two stages of the system consisting of low forest, and high forest fallow.

Naalad System.

• System developed in a small village in central Philippines.
• rotational system using tree species as the fallow species.
• Naalads plant Ipil-ipil along tree strips to hasten the fallow period.
• the ipil ipil are cut and the branches piled along the contours to form a fascine like structure which they called balagbag or babag function is for soil erosion

Mulitstory System

• Good example is homegarden where varieties of crops are interplanted around the house.

Rice Terraces-Forest System

• Called "payoh"-pinugo"/"hayokong"/"hino-ub" is a unique type of indigenous agroforestry system practiced by the Ifugao ethnic tribes
• Managed by clan, family or group of people.

Alley Cropping System

• Agroforestry system that involves planting of hedgerows along the contour.
• Agricultural crops in the alleys formed between two hedgerows.

Purpose of Alley Cropping

• Produce tree and/or shrub products along with crops/forages.
• improve utilization and recycling of soil nutrients.
• Reduce reduce surface water runoff and erosion, subsurface water quality, improve utilization and recycling of soil nutrients.
• Provide or enhance wildlife habitat.
• Create biological Pest Management habitat

Establishment Procedures of Alley Cropping

• Locating of the contour lines
• Planting of hedgerows
• Can use legumes species, red calliandra, madre de cacao, cassia spectabilis and ipil-ipil.
• grass or other plants used as hedgerows

Pruning/Maintenance of Hedgerows in Alley Cropping System

• hedgerow intervals and pruning maintanence is necessary
• agricultural crops are inserted between the alleys

Characteristics of GOOD Alley Cropping Trees

• Light, open crown that lets sunlight through
• Ability to resprout quickly after pruning
• A resistance to drought, flooding, soil variability and other climatic hazards, and deep trusthing tap-root system
• Few and shallow lateral roots. (or prunable) ability to aassist nitrogen fixation

Strength and Weakness of Alley Cropping

• soil and water runoff or erosion through improvement of the physical and chemical properties of the soil
• Yield are expected to increase

Multistorey

• combination that is characterized by at least two vertical canopy layers
• tries to imitate tropical rainforest, there is a better use of light, space and soil.

Types of Multi-Storey

• Indigenous multistorey system and coconut based multistorey system in the philippines
• Mahogany + Agricultural crops and rain tree + coofee
• Paraserianthes Falcataria + coffee/abaca

Trees in Multi-Storey Systema

• Tree are basically used as canopy crop to:provide shade to understorey crops, provide valuable products such as wood
• Trees maintain soil fertility, and help control soil erosion and increase water and nitrogen input

Criteria of Multistorey system for tree selection

• needs to have multiple uses and not cast too much shade
• nitrogen fixing crops with high small, open crown and sparse foliage needs

Strength and Weakness of Multistorey systema

• has optimum use for water and conservation
• more efficient nutrients and good diversity is involved
• needs and has many inputs and involves with other current practices involved

Live Fence / Boundary Planting

• very common practice in the rural areas.
• Live barriers are thicker more densely spaced fences that may include a number of different species and usually do not support other fencing materials.

Purpose of Boundary/Live Fences

• keep-out animals into their farm/homestead and demarcate areas

Chracteristics/Boundary Planting

• drough and drought resistent and tolerate injuries
• grow fast and easly to establish and are compatable

Windbreak System

• narrow strips of vegetation, usually trees, shrubs and/or grasses strategically
• need to be semi-permeable, letting some wind through and not blocking the wind entirely

Benefit of Tree Breaks

• Improve, quality of crop and yield by portecting from wind damage conservation of moisture by erosion

Taungya System

• Is a Burmese word which means hill (taung) cultivation (ya)
• Farmers plant raise agricultural crops between rows of forest tree species simultaneously.

Silvopastoral

• Practice of combining forestry and grazing of domesticated animals
• Not as widespread in the Philippines compares to arid and semi-Arid regions where grassland are extensive.
• The trees are managed for high value sawlogs and, at the same time, provide shade and shelter for the livestocks and forage, reducing stress and sometimes increasing forage production