An Introduction to Agroforestry: Four Decades of Scientific Developments

Agroforestry – the practice of growing trees and crops in interacting combinations – is recognized the world over as an integrated approach to sustainable land-use. Agroforestry systems, being multifunctional, facilitate not only the production of food and wood products but also provide a variety of ecosystem services such as climate-change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and soil quality improvement. Agroforestry research has made rapid strides since organized efforts started in the late 1970s. Today, a vast body of scientific knowledge and an impressive array of publications on agroforestry are available. Four World Congresses on Agroforestry conducted once every five years since 2004 have brought together the global community of agroforestry professionals and practitioners to share and discuss the emerging trends and paradigm shifts in this field. The fifth Congress is scheduled to be held in Quebec, Canada. However, a comprehensive college-level textbook incorporating these research findings did not exist until this book was first published. The first edition of this book in 1993 (Nair, P. K. R., 1993) is out of print and somewhat dated. This revised edition, with emphasis on the scientific developments during the past more than four decades, addresses this long-felt need.