Synthesis: Agroforestry for Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture in Asia and Africa

Abstract

Over the last several decades, a large body of work has accumulated demonstrating that agroforestry could be instrumental in bringing stability and sustainability in agroecosystems and enable the transition towards a green economy. Agroforestry has also emerged as a potential tool to achieve some of the sustainable developmental goals set by the United Nations. The different chapters of this book have explored traditional and modern agroforestry practices in Africa and Asia. A key lesson emerging from the various chapters is that agroforestry can provide ecosystem services including provisioning, regulation and maintenance, and cultural services. The different chapters have also highlighted the challenges and barriers to wider adoption of various agroforestry practices, and identified how these barriers can be overcome to promote agroforestry as a mainstream land-use system. This chapter briefly synthesizes the key messages, the common challenges and the way forward. The implications for practice and policy of agroforestry involve investing in programmes at different scales for climate change mitigation and adaptation; biodiversity conservation and valuation of ecosystem services; addressing food and livelihood security of smallholders, women and resource poor farmers; emphasis on traditional and modern agroforestry for achieving the UN Sustainable Development goals.