Beyond the scientific flavor, Agroforestry is a hybrid farming mechanism and livestock cultivation along with the forest supported plants. Agroforestry, apart from providing the economic benefits, also results in more diverse, healthy, and sustainable land-utilization system.Farmland trees can provide many products such as timber, fodder, fuel-wood, medicines, and oils. It also helps to conserve soil, enhance soil fertility,and provide shelter belts for crops and fruit trees. Trees provide the foliage cover to crops growing under their canopy and this helps these crops in preserving their moisture thus resulting in the reduction of evaporation rate. Non-leguminous crops are greatly benefited by the enriched nitrogenous soil as a result of residue decomposition of some trees.
Trees benefit the nutrient structure of soils in multiple ways. Leaf litter decomposes and add a wide variety of nutrients and the same holds true for the root system which release nutrients upon decomposition. Many deep-rooted trees suck up all the nutrients from extremely great depths and then release them as residue later on to be used by the crops.GA ecologists have experience in implementing self-sustaining agroforestry projects. Agroforestry programmes in India were started in the late 1970s as a result of the recommendations of the National Commission on Agriculture. This in turn led to various social forestry projects, which provided the farmers additional income from the sale of timber and other subsistence benefits like fuel-wood, fodder, and non-timber forest produce.GA team is also exploring the potential and implantation of MPT (Multipurpose Trees).The use of MPTs in the context of agroforestry is still in its exploration phase but the associated ecological and fiduciary potential cannot be underestimated.
