The incorporation of trees on farms, known as agroforestry, has the potential to contribute to resilient livelihoods, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity conservation. But, despite its many benefits, the widespread adoption of agroforestry still faces numerous challenges.
As part of the Working Landscapes programme, we have been promoting smallholder agroforestry as a component of climate-smart landscapes in DR Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, and Viet Nam. To learn from the experiences in these focus landscapes, we have reflected on our achievements so far, best practices, the lessons we have learned, and what should be priorities for future programmes. We have compiled our main insights into a synthesis publication that is now available.
The new publication emphasizes three sets of conditions necessary for the uptake and upscaling of diverse agroforestry systems that contribute to livelihood, climate and biodiversity objectives.
The first set pertains to knowledge. It is important for farmers, extension officers, government planners, and NGO practitioners alike, to understand and recognize the potential benefits of diverse agroforestry, to understand how production, processing and trade can be improved, and how successful practices can be upscaled. Experiences in the Working Landscapes programme have shown the value of combining local and scientific knowledge through collaborative approaches and mutual learning. In Indonesia, for example, Tropenbos technicians and farmers worked together on developing methods to increase the profitability of rubber agroforestry practices.
The second set of conditions relates to government support. Government officials must adopt a holistic approach to agricultural development that recognizes the long-term benefits of diverse and multifunctional production models and the need for integrated planning. Governments must also remove regulatory barriers to smallholder agroforestry and increase the tenure security of agroforestry farmers. Civil Society Organizations can encourage governments towards more support for agroforestry. Tropenbos Viet Nam, for example, actively engaged government extension agencies in field-level training courses on coffee agroforestry, which inspired the government’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to provide similar trainings in other communities.
The third set of conditions pertains to economic viability. Agroforestry must be competitive with alternative land-use options, such as monoculture plantations. This requires access to markets for the products and services of agroforestry systems, as well as access to finance to invest in agroforestry systems and value chains. Tropenbos Ghana, for example, helped to establish Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), which enabled cocoa farmers, especially women, to invest in the management of their cocoa agroforests and diversify their livelihood sources.
The publication offers many lessons about upscaling agroforestry for resilient livelihoods, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity conservation. It not only provides testimony of achieved results but also provides clear guidance for future programmes. You can find the full report here.
See below for additional publications and videos addressing various aspects of agroforestry adoption.
The incorporation of trees on farms, known as agroforestry, has the potential to contribute to resilient livelihoods, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity conservation. But, despite its many benefits, the widespread adoption of agroforestry still faces numerous challenges.
As part of the Working Landscapes programme, we have been promoting smallholder agroforestry as a component of climate-smart landscapes in DR Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, and Viet Nam. To learn from the experiences in these focus landscapes, we have reflected on our achievements so far, best practices, the lessons we have learned, and what should be priorities for future programmes.
On this publication we emphasize on three sets of conditions necessary for the uptake and upscaling of diverse agroforestry systems that contribute to livelihood, climate and biodiversity objectives.
In the Bafwasende landscape in DR Congo the adoption of agroforestry practices could help decrease the pres¬sure on the natural forest. We have been working to improve the conditions for scaling diverse cocoa-based agroforestry practices. What have we done and learned:
Tropenbos DR Congo built capacity among local farmers — women and youth in particular — to improve their income through cocoa-based agroforestry systems, while preventing deforestation.
They supported communities with formalizing collective land titles covering 90,000 hectares, offering tenure security needed to invest in agroforestry on lands that were previously deforested.
They enabled farmers to organize themselves in 20 producer associations and established contacts with financial institutions to increase access to credit for agroforestry.
They learned that it is crucial for any NGO working with communities to critically reflect on how the land-use practices they promote relate to local preferences, needs and customs.
It is critical to combine support for agroforestry with developing value chains for deforestation-free produce, and investments in land-use planning, monitoring and enforcement, to ensure that agroforestry expansion does not take place at the expense of natural forests.
In Ghana, cocoa is traditionally grown in agroforestry systems, but over time farmers increasingly switched to monocultures, with negative effects on long-term production levels and farmers’ resilience. We have supported cocoa farmers to bring back trees into their farms.
Together with farmers we worked on ways to cultivate different trees and plants within cocoa plantations. We helped to establish village-level savings groups, which enabled cocoa farmers, especially women, to invest in the management of their cocoa agroforests and diversify their livelihood sources. We shared best practices with companies and government agencies, some of which have now embraced diverse cocoa agroforestry as the way forward. We also helped district governments with integrating agroforestry objectives in medium-term development plans, and raised the government’s attention to current tree tenure policies that serve as disincentives for farmers to grow and maintain trees on their farms.
We have learned that upscaling sustainable cocoa agroforestry requires ongoing engagement with government extension agencies, to fundamentally change their approach towards cocoa farming. From focussing on specialized cocoa farms with little or no shade trees, to promoting diversified and multifunctional cocoa agroforestry systems that increase farmers’ resilience in the long run.
Many farmers in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, have been converting rubber agroforests to monoculture oil palm plantations, decreasing diversity in the landscape. We want to reverse this trend, by making rubber agroforestry attractive again. What have we done and learned?
Indigenous rubber farmers in Simpang Dua subdistrict, Indonesia have improved productivity through better land-use practices.
Rubber farmers organized by establishing a Collective Rubber Processing and Marketing Unit, trained them in post-harvest treatment of the rubber to increase prices, and helped with developing direct linkages with rubber buyers.
We have learned that financial institutions are unlikely to provide loans to new and unexperienced farmers’ organizations. Non-profit organizations can help to overcome this barrier.
Improving the attractiveness of diverse rubber agroforestry requires, among others, the development of value chains for organic products, and increased tenure security for rubber farmers.
Expansion of coffee monocultures on the slopes of the Srepok River Basin in Viet Nam has resulted in severe land degradation. As part of the Working Landscapes programme, we have been supporting coffee agroforestry to restore these lands and increase smallholders’ resilience.
What have we learned?
Women in communities of ethnic minorities can play a key role in restoring degraded lands through agroforestry, based on their experience with planting and caring for trees in home gardens.
Mindsets and approaches within government agencies can be influenced by actively engaging government officials from the very start of interventions.
To upscale sustainable coffee agroforestry, it is necessary to further increase the economic attractiveness of agroforestry, e.g., through the national Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) programme.
