Definition of Agroforestry Revisited
This chapter was previously published in Leakey, R.R.B., 1996. Agroforestry Today, 8 (1), 5–7, with permission of World Agroforestry Center
Abstract
The current definition of agroforestry views it as a set of stand-alone technologies in which trees are sequentially or simultaneously integrated with crops and/or livestock. This falls far short of its ultimate potential as a way to mitigate deforestation and land degradation and thus alleviate poverty. A different view, however, is that agroforestry practices can be seen as phases in the development of a productive agroecosystem, akin to the normal dynamics of natural ecosystems – i.e., an ecologically based, natural resource management system that diversifies ...
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