Introduction

Agroforestry practices are traditional, very old, and very specific to the local social, economic and agroecological conditions. The farmers, graziers, and forest dwellers have an intimate knowledge of these traditional practices. With the establishment of ICRAF in 1978, agroforestry practices started receiving greater attention. In fact, they have been critical.

However, as usual, there was little understanding of the traditional practices, past research, and about the future research needs. This prompted the author to launch an extensive search for over a period of almost a decade, the outcome of which is this book.

Target Audience

The book should be of interest to those who are concerned with land use in agriculture, forest and soil conservation departments, universities, and international agencies.

Contents

Eight chapters of the book cover historical perspective agrosilviculture, plantation crops under shade of trees, agricultural crops with commercial trees, shifting cultivation and other forest-based silvoagriculture practices, pastoral silviculture, silvopastoral, and agrosilvopastoral practices.