Introduction

Abstract

Agroforestry is now considered an effective land use system, which contributes to food, nutritional and environmental security, and has great potential to restore degraded landscapes. There are different forms of land degradation, such as inappropriate land use and management, deforestation and forest degradation, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, salinization, acidification, waterlogging, desertification and mining in different regions of the world. To meet the socio-economic needs of the ever-increasing human population as well as mitigate and adapt to the prevailing climate change, there is a need to restore or rehabilitate all kinds of degraded lands. The agricultural systems need fertile land for optimum production, but agroforestry systems have unique characteristics that provide livelihood security besides providing food, fodder, fuel, timber and several other products from the degraded lands. Agroforestry, as subject of scientific investigation, assumes wider recognition in view of the need to maximize biological productivity based on sustainable land management. During the past four decades, agroforestry has come of age and begun to attract the attention of the international scientific community, primarily as a means for sustaining productivity of degraded lands besides conserving biodiversity and enhancing environmental services. Research efforts have shown that most of the degraded areas prone to soil erosion, salinization, waterlogging and mining and coastal mangrove areas can be made productive by adopting suitable agroforestry practices and techniques. The possibilities are developing plantation-based cropping systems, using fertilizer trees in dry lands and integrating high-value medicinal and aromatic plants, livestock, poultry, forest and fruit trees and vegetables in agroforestry. This introductory chapter discusses in brief agroforestry practices and technologies for degraded landscapes and their service functions with a focus on biomass production, sustainability indicators, carbon sequestration, soil fertility improvement, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and climate change mitigation. The implementation of agroforestry technologies as a practicable tool for restoring degraded landscapes and climate-smart agriculture is needed in restoration policies, strategies, national plans, programmes and projects.