Agroforestry, as defined by the World Agroforestry (ICRAF) - is the interaction of agriculture and trees, including the agricultural use of trees.

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Planting trees within and around agricultural fields helps protect the crops. Thanks to their canopy and rooting system, they reduce the impact of climate de-regulations. Trees generate multiple benefits for farmers and their eco-system : naturally enriching  soil with nitrogen and organic matter, erosion reduction, water de-pollution and regulation, and biodiversity regeneration. Moreover, trees offer diversified source of income to farmers : fruits, timber, fuel-wood, medicinal benefits, and also land value is higher of land with higher number of trees. High valued tree species can serve as a "safety net" for farmers, to pay for schooling or medical fees, some call them their "pension fund", as they plan to cut some of these trees when they retire to cover their expenses. Managing and planning to plant more trees and cut them (for timber) when they are old enough will not only increase biodiversity, maintain balance of ecosystem it will also provide a sustainable revenue to farmers.

Trees are one of the best investments you can make on Earth. It costs less and takes less time to plant, and then it will generate multiple economic and ecosystem services (soil, water, biodiversity...) for many years.

 

AgroForestry helps fight climate change

 

Climate changes materialize in extreme climatic events and storms. The harvests of small-scale farmers are already directly affected by prolonged droughts and heavy rains. This happens more and more often, with major impacts on crops. Moreover, damages are increased when the ecosystem is already degraded: erosion, aridification (region becoming increasingly arid, or dry), pollution and lack of biodiversity... Farms need to be regenerated and more diversified to increase their resilience and adaptation to these climatic changes.

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You need a rich, robust and diversified ecosystem to deliver a grand crop (farm produce). Climate change comes from the excess of greenhouse gases, of which Co2, present in the atmosphere. Trees absorb and sequester Co2 and transforms it into oxygen, hence, they are a perfect match to serve as "carbon sinks", to offset our climate footprint. You may already know this, and it's true, trees are a privileged way to balance human activities with Nature. 

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AgroForestry is essential to The Western Ghats 

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The Western Ghats of India, a region which runs along the western side of the Indian peninsula is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world.

About a third of the geographical area of the Western Ghats is under forests of diverse types—evergreen to semi-green forests, moist to deciduous forests, etc. This region is rich in biodiversity and is a treasure house of several known and unknown flora and fauna. The Western Ghats mountains play an important role in conserving a balanced weather conditions especially during monsoon as the mountains intercept the rain-bearing westerly monsoon winds to usher in the Monsoon season.  The dense forests also contribute to the precipitation of the area by acting as a substrate for condensation of moist rising orographic winds from the sea, and releasing much of the moisture back into the air via transpiration, allowing it to later condense and fall again as rain. Due to demographic and economic pressures, market failures and inappropriate policies, the bio-diversity of the region is in various stages of degradation and therefore needs to be conserved.

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Cultivating Agroforestry in this region is extremely valuable for conservation of The Western Ghats, one of most the ecologically sensitive zones in the World.