Agroforestry: Why every year more farmers are switching to this farming system?
Imagine that you visit a coffee farmer expecting to see the brilliant red cherries hanging from coffee plants. You walk into the coffee farmer’s property and you find banana trees, lime trees, some very tall native trees that provide shade –making that your visit to this imaginary tropical place feels refreshing and cool-. In the middle of all that diversity, like shining stars, the red coffee cherries are revealing in front of your eyes!
This is a taste of how could look an agroforestry system, lots of different plant species creating an ideal microclimate for the coffee trees.
What is agroforestry?
Agroforestry is a dynamic system that combines knowledge developed from different fields such as agricultural science, forestry, husbandry, ecological conservation, economics, and policy. By integrating trees, other perennial plants –like shrubs and palms-, and in some cases even livestock in a harmonious way, the land use could be improved in ecological and productive terms; which means better conservation of natural resources and more diversity and higher yields of products.
This is not a new idea, many traditional societies had put in practice these type of systems, planting trees together with annual and perennial crops. A clear example is the home gardens in tropical countries that exist for more than thousands of years ago. In many of these countries, people understood that crops grown under the trees’ shade could have many benefits. To the eyes of an urban-like person, home gardens may see as a big messy green patch; but if the same person looks carefully, different edible leaves, food crops, and fruits hanging from trees could be observed.
Agroforestry systems existed in all over the world, in the Northern hemisphere with plant species of temperate weather and in the Southern hemisphere with the particular characteristics of the tropical weather, such as high amounts of rainfall. In most of the tropical countries, agroforestry is quite widespread. It is estimated that about 1.2 billion people rely on agroforestry. Wherever these systems are implemented, they enhance the efficient use of sunlight, retain moisture, provide more plant nutrients, and other ecological services that we will tackle immediately after.
Benefits of agroforestry systems:
1. Environmental:
Supporting biodiversity: Agroforestry system provides food, shelter, and habitat for different plant and animal species… Including birds, flowers, bees, and life in the soil!
Enriched soils and water availability: Soils are improved through the accumulation of organic matter from decaying nature and thanks to these special conditions water retention is increased, creating a more fertile environment for life.
Pest control: Rich biodiversity and better soil equilibrium favors the presence of natural enemies against pests. Food crops are protected; and undesirable weeds have less chance of encroach the area due to shade provide by trees.
Counteracting global warming: Agroforestry increase carbon sequestration. This means that it retains in their biomass carbon dioxide (CO2), preventing their liberation into the atmosphere, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The no-tilling practices also add to this positive effect.
Resilience and microclimate regulation: Thanks to all characteristics mentioned above, agroforestry systems are more resilient than systems composed exclusively by annual crops, monocultures, or only tree plantations.
2. Economic:
Increase agricultural productivity: Farming or forestry is a business for many people. In order to obtain income from these activities, farmers often use all the nutrients from their soil and after that, they add high quantities of fertilizer to maintain a certain yield. This type of management destroys its soil. Differently, agroforestry not only keeps soil fertility but also could increase it, ensuring constant yields.
The use of external agro-inputs is reduced or abandoned: Since the agroforestry system regulates itself, there is no need to rely on synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. A healthy soil will suffer less from pest attacks.
3. Social:
Reducing hunger and poverty: Agroforestry ensures more diversified products, which could be translated into more reliable food supply. In case one crop fails, due to pests or drought, other crops can succeed. In this way, the family farmer has a safety net to rely on.
Women empowerment: Traditionally, in tropical countries, men are in charge of cash crops and women, of food crops. The diversity of food that is produced within agroforestry allows women to take more farm decisions. Agroforestry can boost women's control over resources. Also, having closer trees reduces the time that women invest in bringing firewood from other long-distance areas.
Recreation and health: Agroforestry areas are inspiring places where someone can feel nice subjective impressions, impacting self well-being.
Animal well-being. Farm animals can live in a more diverse and comfortable environment. For instance, chickens are forest animals.
MONOCULTURE SYSTEM (Source: purproject.com)
AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM (Source: purproject.com)
Coffee in agroforestry
Coffee grown in agroforestry presents many advantages over other production systems. As we know, coffee prices fluctuate according to supply and demand; and they are dropping steadily since the decade of 1990. In the general coffee market, coffee price is actually below production costs, threatening the life of coffee farmers. Thanks to their diversified system and rich variety of flora and fauna, agroforestry supplies families with other products and a full range of ecosystem services, generating extra income and other possible crops for self-consumption.
But there is even more! Coffee yield can be increased by agroforestry systems. The presence of local native trees provides shade without damaging of coffee plants and even boosting microclimate conditions and nutrient recycling. Also, an appropriate combination of plant diversity, management practices, and physical conditions can have positive effects on disease regulation leading to an overall higher yield when compared with other systems.
And yes! You can have all these biodiversity taste in your cup. So, support coffee farmers who are trying to switch to agroforestry systems! You can donnate to the Circular Coffe Fund.
By: Paola Solís