Concept and Scope in present situation
Agro forestry is an old concept. Trees, Crops, and Animals have traditionally been raised together on small farms throughout the world. Agroforestry is a collective name for land use systems. Involving trees combined with crops and / or animals on the same unit of land. Further it
| l | combines production of multiple output with protection of resource based, |
| l | places, emphasis on the use of multiple indigenous trees and shrubs, |
| l | is particularly suitable for low input conditions and fragile environments. |
| l | Involves the interplay of socio-cultural values more than in most other land use systems and |
| l | Is structurally and functionally more complex than monoculture. |
Agro-Forestry is a relatively new name for the set of old practices. It has now become an accepted land use system. In an Agro-Forestry system there are both ecological and economical interactions between the various components.
The most acceptable defination of Agro-Forestry is
Agro-Forestry is any sustainable land use system that maintains an increases total yields by combining food crops (annuals) with tree crops (perrenials) and/or live stock on the same unit of land, either alternately or at the same time, using management practices that suit the social and cultural characteristics of the local people and the economic and the ecological conditions of the areas.
SCOPE:
The shrinking of land per capita, huge demand supply gap of various kind of woods, food products as well as fodders are making Agroforestry viable and alternative landuse option.
Agroforestry is a potential approach to minimize unsustainable with drawals from forest an instead promote production of fuel wood, fodder and timber in conjunction with Agricultural crops on non-forest land which provides vast scope.
Heavy fertilization coupled with high irrigation frequencies led to soil loss, nutrient loss and degradation of land whereas in forest cover, land upgradation is a continuos process, it restores soil and moisture conservation and there is a gain from all angles. Taking good points, from forest and agriculture, agroforestry concept itself becomes a profitable professions.
Now clearly, agroforestry has considerable potential, not as the only way to improve agricultural production, but as one important way to enhance and maintain overall productivity of the small upland farm, the agricultural unit that is becoming more prevalent in many parts of the world.
Ag.
Technologies
(Agro Forestry)
