Scope of agroforestry

Scope of agroforestry in Nepal is wider because it has direct effect on socio-economic condition of the farmers and their surrounding environment. The main reasons for explaining the scope of agroforestry are as follows:

Economic reasons

• Agroforestry gives multiple products to meet growing demand of increasing human population and livestock. These products are food/vegetables/fruits, fodder and forage needed for livestock, fuel wood, timber, leaf litter needed for organic manure production and other NTFPs.
• Agroforestry practice helps to improve and sustain the crop productivity which increases the level of income of the farmers by selling surplus agroforestry products.
• Agroforestry practice also helps to improve the nutritive value of animal and human diet by supplying green feed, fruits and vegetables etc.

Social reasons

• Agroforestry helps in improving the living standard of the farmers through sustained agroforestry yield, income and employment, and therefore, access of health, education, and other social services of the farmers could be improved due to the regular income and employment opportunities.
• Majority of the Nepalese farmers have less than one hectare farmland and increasing population requires more food, fuel wood, fodder and forage, and timber. To meet these demands, agroforestry is the only one option for our country.
• Agroforestry is a traditional practice in Nepal. Therefore, farmers can be motivated and empowered easily for agroforestry system promotion.

Environmental reasons

• Agroforestry practice helps to protect remaining forests by stabilizing shifting cultivation and by reducing pressure of community forests and other natural forests for fodder, fuel wood and timber.
• Agroforestry practice help to improve the farm site ecology by reducing surface run off, soil erosion and nutrient loss, gully formation, landslides, and river bank erosion.
• Trees and crops grown under agroforestry works as carbon sequesters, which helps to reduce the effects of climate change on livelihoods of farmers.

Note:

Highly productive agroforestry systems such as silvi-pastoral system can play an important role in carbon sequestration in soils and in the woody biomass. For example, traditional cattle management involves grass monocultures which degrade in about 5-7 years after establishment, releasing significant amounts of carbon to the atmosphere. Veldkamp (1994) estimated that the cumulative net release of CO₂ from low productivity pastures (Axonopus compressus) varied from 31.5 to 60.5 Mg C/ha in the first 20 years after forest clearing. Well managed silvopastoral systems can improve overall productivity (Bustamanate et al., 1998; Bolivar et al., 1999), while sequestering carbon (López et al., 1999; Andrade, 1999), a potential additional economic benefit for livestock farmers. Total carbon in silvopastoral systems varied between 68-204 t/ha, with most carbon stored in the soil, while annual carbon increments varied between 1.8 to 5.2 t/ha.

The amount of carbon fixed in silvi-pastoral systems is affected by the tree/shrub species, density and spatial distribution of trees, and shade tolerance of herbaceous species.