Agroforestry Systems最新文献

Silvoarable agroforestry system combines tree cultivation and crop production in the same field and can improve microclimatic conditions and water management during weather extremes caused by climate change. This research aimed to evaluate the effect of the integration of tree alleys into arable fields on soil moisture, infiltration, and temperature regime in the drought-prone location of the university farm Amálie (Czechia) during the vegetation seasons of the first two years following tree alley establishment. Soil and air temperatures, as well as soil moisture, were monitored by 51 microclimatic stations in the alley cropping experimental plot. Furthermore, infiltration tests were conducted using an improved single-ring infiltration method, and thermal surveys were performed using an unmanned aerial vehicle. We observed that diurnal temperature amplitudes during the summer seasons were consistently lower in tree alleys than in adjacent arable fields—an effect largely driven by the dense herbaceous understory, which moderated soil heat flux through improved shading, evapotranspiration, and ground cover, despite the limited canopy development of the young trees. During heatwaves, the daily maximum topsoil temperatures in tree alleys were more than 5 °C cooler. Surprisingly, significantly lower maximum temperatures were also observed in deeper soil layers, with temperatures at 25 and 50 cm being 3 and 2 °C cooler, respectively. Furthermore, results showed that tree alleys facilitated greater water recharge during part of intensive rainfall events. The measured infiltration capacity of tree alleys was also considerably higher than that of recently harvested arable fields. Overall, promising early-stage data indicate that tree alleys serve as stabilizing elements of the local microclimate during hydro-meteorological extremes by reducing temperature maxima and by improving infiltration and soil water recharge following intensive rainfalls.

The ecosystem-service valuation in agroforestry contributes to climate resilience and sustainable land use practices. However, the research is still fragmented across disciplines and regions. This bibliometric study systematically examined 1020 peer-reviewed articles indexed in the Scopus database between 2000 and 2024 to comprehensively map global research pathways, thematic patterns and collaboration patterns in the area of ecosystem-service valuation in agroforestry systems. Through Bibliometrix and VOSviewer, we observed an annual growth rate of 23.85%, with an overall number of 31 citations per article. The publications are becoming more global: the developed economies, especially the US (410), Germany (294), and France (282), dominate the output, yet emerging economies, including Brazil (247), India (164), and Indonesia (147), are gaining momentum. The major journals are Agroforestry Systems (128) and Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment (67). Keywords and network analysis show two dominant themes such as ecological management cluster, including agroforestry, carbon, climate, sustainability, and a conservation-policy cluster, including forest, agriculture, and environmental protection. Trending topics have shifted from regional agroecology to carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and ecosystem-service valuations aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The results suggest a transition towards valuation approaches that integrate ecological, economic, and social dimensions. This synthesis indicates that valuation studies across regions and scales provide insights to support agroforestry practices for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation.

The rapid greenhouse gas emissions have brought about the need to adopt modern sustainable approaches that will enhance productivity and mitigate climate change issues. In the pursuit of carbon neutrality, agroforestry emerges as a powerful ally, intertwining sustainable land use with energy transformation. This study aims to establish the potential of agroforestry to reduce carbon emissions significantly. The study examines the relationships between energy use, agroforestry, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂) in China using the Autoregressive Distributed Lags and Granger Causality methods. The findings show that in the short run, energy consumption significantly increases CO₂ emissions. Agroforestry and forest area reduce CO₂ emissions. In the long run, the study found that a 1% increase in agroforestry reduces emissions by 0.741. A similar result was found for forest, as a 1% increment resulted in a 5.88% reduction in emissions. On the other hand, a 1% increase in non-renewable energy consumption causes a 0.89% increase in emissions. Economic growth has a positive effect on emissions and affirms the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. The Granger causality test found that non-renewable energy use, agroforestry, and forest area have a unidirectional causal effect on CO₂ emissions. The study provides critical insights for policymakers to design sustainable policies that address energy and agroforestry needs for sustainable future growth, and cultivate a sustainable and low-carbon future for China.

Elettaria cardamomum is an herbaceous plant that grows in the wet evergreen forests of the Western Ghats of India between 750 and 1500 m above mean sea level, along watercourses and where the canopy is disturbed. Its seed pod, called cardamom, is of economic value and thus the plant was brought under cultivation in the Western Ghats by manipulating the canopy of the wet evergreen forest. This study explored the stand structure, diversity, and composition of shade trees in the managed cardamom agroforests in the Nelliampathy hills of the southern Western Ghats, India. All trees ≥ 10 cm gbh were documented in 39 sample plots of size 50 × 20 m each in the cardamom agroforest and in unlogged forest. The cardamom agroforests were found to contain 93 species, 34% less than the 117 species found in the unlogged forests. Species dominance did not differ in agroforests versus the unlogged forests, but fewer species had high importance value in the cardamom agroforest. Agroforest stand density (357 trees per hectare) was only one-fifth of that in the unlogged forest (1734 trees per hectare) and stand basal area (58.9 m² per hectare) was 30% less than that of unlogged forest (82.6 m² per hectare). Though the stand structure and species composition in cardamom agroforests are highly modified, they are worthy of conservation. Further studies should be carried out to document the diversity and composition of shade trees in the agroforests and compare with the adjacent forests.

Silvopasture systems can provide forage and environmental benefits while achieving similar livestock production goals as open pastures. However, in the Midwestern USA, there is little guidance available to select appropriate silvopasture forage mixtures and what management practices will suppress weeds and improve forage establishment and production. Experiments were conducted at two locations to evaluate the establishment and productivity of spring seeding of four forage treatments and the effect of suppressing existing understory vegetation with glyphosate in the fall prior to seeding on establishment. Forage treatments consisted of orchardgrass alone or in grass or grass-legume mixes that included perennial ryegrass, meadow fescue, smooth brome, red clover and white clover. Glyphosate application reduced cover of unwanted understory plants and increased cover of planted grasses 1, 3, and 13 months after planting. Glyphosate application also increased forage mass almost five times (140 g m⁻²) compared to non-treated plots (30 g m⁻²) 14 months after planting. Orchardgrass seeded alone had greater forage mass and less weed biomass than mixes containing legumes when comparing the cumulative total of three harvest events during the second growing season. Results suggest farmers should conduct weed management before spring planting and addition of forage species to orchardgrass did not improve forage biomass and cover.

Accurate assessment of agroforestry extent and its carbon sequestration potential is crucial for achieving India’s climate targets under the Paris Agreement. However, detailed region-specific estimates, particularly from the country’s diverse agro-climatic zones, remain scarce. Therefore, the present study evaluated the spatial extent and carbon sequestration potential of agroforestry systems in Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh, employing a synergistic approach integrating geospatial analysis with process-based carbon modelling. Various combinations of Sentinel-2 spectral bands, vegetation indices, and biophysical parameters were employed to delineate agroforestry and other land-use systems using the Random Forest algorithm. The findings indicated that agroforestry emerged as a dominant land use, covering 30.81% to 32.08% of the total area. The combination of Sentinel-2 and three biophysical parameters achieved the highest classification accuracy (79.77%) and kappa coefficient (0.743), providing the most reliable delineation of agroforestry areas. Moreover, the 25-year CO2FIX simulation projects an increase in tree biomass from 109.45 to 216.07 Mg DM ha⁻¹ and carbon stock from 76.79 to 153.08 Mg C ha⁻¹. Net carbon sequestration is projected at 76.29 Mg C ha⁻¹, resulting in an annual sequestration rate of 3.05 Mg C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ and a district-level CO₂ mitigation potential of 2.07 Mt CO₂ yr⁻¹. Overall, the findings underscore the vital role of agroforestry in strengthening regional carbon sinks and guiding policymakers in integrating it into climate-resilient land management and mitigation strategies.

Conventional oil palm monocultures negatively impact biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, emphasizing the need for more sustainable production systems. Alley-cropping agroforestry, which integrates secondary crops within oil palm rows, may enhance habitat complexity and support greater biodiversity, yet its effectiveness in oil palm landscapes remains insufficiently understood. This study examined butterfly communities, a widely used bioindicator group across alley-cropping systems (oil palm planted with bamboo, black pepper, cacao, Tongkat Ali, and pineapple) and monoculture oil palm stands aged 7 and 15 years. We compared butterfly species richness, abundance, diversity, and community composition, and evaluated the influence of environmental variables including secondary-crop presence, undergrowth cover, light intensity, air temperature, and relative humidity. A total of 984 butterflies representing 58 species were recorded, with high sampling completeness in both alley-cropping (88%, 57 species) and monoculture systems (89%, 26 species). Alley-cropping treatments exhibited higher species richness and abundance than the 7-year monoculture, while the 15-year monoculture showed comparable levels to several alley-cropping systems. Shannon diversity was significantly higher in Tongkat Ali and some other alley-cropping treatments compared to monocultures, indicating more compositionally complex assemblages. In contrast, Simpson diversity showed limited differences among treatments, suggesting similar dominance structures across systems. Among environmental factors, only the presence of secondary crops significantly (p < 0.05) increased butterfly abundance and species richness. Alley-cropping systems also supported significantly more associated species (p < 0.05) and distinct community compositions relative to monocultures. Overall, alley-cropping enhances butterfly diversity and community heterogeneity in oil palm landscapes, highlighting its potential as a biodiversity-friendly alternative to conventional monoculture cultivation.

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is an important food security crop in sub-Saharan Africa, but yields remain low due to poor soil fertility and inefficient nutrient management. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of integrating coconut husk biochar (CH-biochar), green Mucuna, and inorganic NPK fertilizer in enhancing soil fertility, nutrient uptake, and yield of the CRI-Ligri sweet potato variety in Ghana. A randomized complete block design with seven treatments (control, biochar, NPK, mucuna, NPK + biochar, NPK + mucuna, and biochar + mucuna) replicated four times was conducted across two seasons (2023–2024). Data were collected on soil physicochemical properties, chlorophyll index (CI), leaf area index (LAI), nutrient uptake efficiency, and tuber yield. Results showed that biochar significantly improved soil organic carbon, nitrogen, and effective cation exchange capacity, while enhancing soil moisture retention and nutrient availability. The NPK + biochar treatment achieved the highest nutrient uptake efficiency, with nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) increasing by 40% compared to NPK alone. Biochar-based treatments also improved chlorophyll index and LAI, reflecting enhanced photosynthetic activity. Sweet potato yields were markedly higher under biochar-inclusive treatments, with NPK + biochar producing 10.52 t/ha in Season 1 and 2.20 t/ha in Season 2, outperforming NPK alone, although yields in Season 2 declined due to rainfall variability. The findings demonstrate that CH-biochar, when integrated with inorganic fertilizers, enhances nutrient retention and crop productivity while mitigating leaching losses. This highlights its potential as a sustainable soil amendment within integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) systems. Adoption of biochar-based strategies could improve sweet potato productivity, strengthen food security, and enhance resilience of smallholder farming systems in Ghana.

While the expansion of monoculture oil palm plantations has contributed to national and local economic growth, large-scale development within forested areas has led to deforestation in Indonesia. This has raised concerns among key market countries, particularly in the European Union, potentially leading to trade restrictions on Indonesia’s oil palm products linked to deforestation. In response, the Indonesian government has introduced several regulations to address this issue. One such regulation involves the adoption of Strategi Jangka Benah, a transitional strategy to convert monoculture oil palm plantations within state forests into oil palm agroforestry (OPAF) systems under the social forestry program. OPAF is considered more ecologically sustainable and economically viable than monoculture plantations. However, understanding smallholder farmers' preferences for tree species combinations in OPAF is crucial, as these choices impact adoption rates. This study aims to predict adoption peaks and adoption timelines while identifying the key factors influencing both, using the Adoption and Diffusion Outcome Prediction Tool framework and analyze how socio-economic characteristics influence farmers’ decisions to adopt oil palm agroforestry. Data was collected through structured interviews and focus group discussions with 136 smallholder farmers in Jambi, Indonesia. The findings reveal the predicted adoption peaks for oil palm agroforestry systems were 39% for oil palm–Shorea leprosula, 95% for oil palm–Durio zibethinus, and 98% for oil palm–Falcataria moluccana, with estimated adoption timelines of 20, 19, and 13 years, respectively. The time to reach peak adoption was significantly affected by trialability, innovation complexity, and the relative upfront adoption cost. Meanwhile, adoption peaks were primarily influenced by current and future economic and environmental benefits. It shows that the number of family members and monthly income significantly influence farmers' decisions to adopt OPAF, as well. Based on these findings, several policy recommendations are proposed to accelerate OPAF adoption rates.

Agroforestry is increasingly recognized as a sustainable land-use practice that integrates trees with crops and livestock to enhance climate resilience. This study assessed farmers’ perceived effectiveness of agroforestry in sustaining household climate resilience in Mufindi District, Tanzania. A cross-sectional design was employed, combining quantitative data from 209 household surveys with qualitative insights from focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS and chi-square tests, while qualitative data underwent thematic analysis. Findings show that agroforestry enhances soil fertility (69%), reduces soil erosion (60%), improves water retention (43%), supports biodiversity (40–63%), and increases agricultural productivity, including crop diversification (77%) and yield (71%). Economic benefits included income diversification, with 46% of households reporting increased earnings from timber, fruits, and other tree products. Chi-square results revealed significant associations between agroforestry adoption and farm productivity (p = 0.000), financial stability (p = 0.010), and environmental well-being (p = 0.041). Constraints include limited market access, inadequate extension services, and crop-tree competition. The study concludes that agroforestry is strongly perceived by farmers as an effective climate adaptation strategy that promotes environmental sustainability, food security, and economic resilience. It recommends targeted policies to strengthen farmer training, improve market access, and support wider adoption to sustain long-term livelihoods and ecosystem health.