Despite of all environmental, social and economic advantages that have been continuously proved by science, the adoption of agroforestry systems is not yet impactant, in the global level.
Why?
In this video, we talk about the effects of artificial pruning on integrated crop-livestock-forest systems.
http://repileite.ning.com/forum/topics/quais-as-vantagens-da-desrama-artificial-no-sistema-ilpf
Actually people think that from agriculture they get more return than in forestry so they concentrate on agriculture and neg late the forestry part .
Actually farmers are concerned with high and short term returns from their investment. environmental and social benefits of agroforestry are not incentives for farmers.
Adopting a new technology is a risk, also, agroforestry systems can show results (economically) in the medium to long term, not immediatly. And there is need of continous technical advisory from the technitians, maybe several years before the farmers are ready to continue by themselves. I think that a scheme of payment or retribution for ecosystem systems using these techniques, or maybe some economical support or incentives are necesary for farmers to adopt the new technology. In my country we are looking for ways to foster the use of agroforestry for animal and crop production, we still have a long way to go, but we are working towards it.
As farmers have to bear trees for longer time periods on their farmlands without getting some immediate economic returns, so economic incentives are must for first few years to sustain agroforestry systems. once the farmer tested and found an agroforestry system compatible with his/her objectives of farm management/production, then no need for further economic support. however technical support from agroforesters should be a continuous activity to help improve agroforestry practices on farmlands.
Fantastic contributions. In Brazil, the government launched, in 2009, an incentive program providing rural credit with differentiated financial conditions to encourage adoption of these systems.
This Program is called - Low Carbon Agriculture (Programa ABC - Programa de Agricultura de Baixo Carbono, in portuguese)
Agroforestry has many potentials and limitations. One of the main problem is associated with the time lag required to get actual benefit of AF system. However, the policy issues need to be addressed for an all-out development of agroforestry. Institutional issues are also critical and need attention. For a national level planning of agroforestry to succeed, it will be necessary to develop effective means of coordination between different sectors and the development of a common understanding of policy and legal issues affecting the adoption of an agroforestry policy framework.Agroforestry should be looked upon as a means for improving the socio-economic conditions of the rural poor and should be the main plan of an integrated rural development programme.
i think that there still are many technical gaps to be solved to make agroforestry be acceptable and adopted by farmers (here in Brazil).
In Italy, as well Europe, agroforestry is a very complex issue.
In my country, Italy, there has been a long tradition with historical agroforestry systems that have been progressively abandoned with conversion of these mixed systems to agricultural monocropping. This happened for many, complex reasons (agricultural mechanization, lack of interest for local wood market, Common Agricultural Policy –PAC, of the European Union).
New agroforestry systems (silvoarable systems ) have been recently developed by a European research team for combining timber production with arable food crops. PAC have provided grants to farmers adopting these innovative systems. But farmers uptake has been very poor, at least in Italy. I do not have specific data for other European countries. Italian farmers are mostly worried of a fast decline in crop yields due to tree competition, mostly for light. Wood market, especially for poplars (10 years rotation), is not very profitable. It might be more profitable for other more valuable timber trees, such as wild cherry or walnut (Juglans spp.), but their growth is slower than poplar, and their cultivation is more risky.
Recently we have established an European Federation of Agroforestry Associations (EURAF). The Coordinator is Christian Dupraz, INRA France. In few weeks there will be the first EURAF Conference, Bruxelles 9-10 Oct. ’12. More details on the EURAF association on its web site (http://euraf.isa.utl.pt/news/eurafconference2012)
In Zimbabwe, people do not generally believe in trees. It looks like they are mostly conservative having been brought up in farms where only annual crops were mainly cultivated. Having raised that point, I think the major limitation is lack of appropriate extension services to promote the adoption of new agroforestry practices. Furthermore, although there is literature to prove that indeed agroforestry is beneficial, there has been very little effort to simplify the scientific jargon for the benefit of the farmers who should be the ultimate beneficiaries of research efforts.
En in Albania, as well Italy or Europe, agroforestry is a very complex issue.
In our country, Albania, there has been a long tradition with historical agroforestry systems that have been progressively abandoned with conversion of these mixed systems to typical agricultural monocropping. This happened for many, complex reasons (agricultural mechanization, lack of interest for local wood market, Common Agricultural Policy – PAC, of the European Union).
New agroforestry systems (silvoarable systems ) have been recently developed by a Albanian research team for combining timber production with arable food crops. PAC have provided grants to farmers adopting these innovative systems. But farmers uptake has been very poor, at least in Albania. You must know I do not have specific data for other European countries. Albanian farmers are mostly worried of a fast decline in crop yields due to tree competition, mostly for light. Wood market, especially for Poplus spp. os Salix spp. (10 years rotation), as in Italy or Spain, is not very profitable. It might be more profitable for other more valuable timber trees, such as chestnut or walnut (Castanea spp. or Juglans spp.), but their growth is slower than them, mentined above, and their cultivation is more risky, in particular in Center and South of Albania.
Recently we have established an Albanian Federation of Agroforestry Associations (AURAF).
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