Agroforestry in India: new national policy sets the bar high
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Version 0 of 1. Over 1,000 delegates from 80 countries gathered between 10-14 February for the World Congress of Agroforestry. Held in New Delhi, India, the congress brought together leading thinkers to discuss how to harness the contribution of trees to human wellbeing, climate change mitigation and adaptation, development and sustainabiity. One of the issues that stood out during the four day conference, was that despite the important role that agroforestry can play in socio-economic development, only one government in the world has drafted, adopted and is currently implementing a national policy on agroforestry. India has designed a comprehensive policy with the goal to improve productivity, create employment opportunities, generate income and meet the ever-increasing demand for timber, food, fuel, fodder, fertiliser and fibre from a growing population. The policy was approved by India's parliament just last week. It recognises the potential of agroforestry as a land-use system that integrates trees into farmlands and rural landscapes to enhance productivity, profitability, diversity and ecosystem sustainability. The president of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, is advising that rather than being discouraged by long gestation periods normally associated with agroforestry projects, countries need to implement innovative models that encourage investment in this sector. The policy was inspired by the government of India's ambitious target of increasing tree cover to 33% (pdf) from the present level of less than 25%. It recognises that agroforestry is perhaps the only alternative to meeting this target while at the same time providing opportunities for better livelihoods. Before the policy was adopted, India like many other developing countries had its agroforestry-related guidelines scattered in various government ministries and departments. Agroforestry was largely ignored, as it does not sit neatly in either the field of environment or agriculture. There was no single document that harmonised all the guidelines to chart the way forward for the nation's development agenda. So why did India prioritise the design of an agroforestry policy and is it important for other countries to emulate India's example? According to president Mukherjee, it is estimated that around 64% of India's timber requirements are met from trees grown on farms. "Agroforestry meets almost half of the total demand of 201m tonnes of fuel wood in the country and generates 450 labour days per hectare annually without negating farm productivity or income." "Agroforestry holds immense promise in enhancing the productivity of land in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner" he said. The policy is expected to benefit the country's farmers through incentives for agroforestry, insurance schemes and greater access to markets for agroforestry products. The potential in agroforestry to mitigate climate change and help farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change are a strong driving force behind India's new policy. As Cheikh Mbow, senior scientist of climate change and development at the World Agroforestry Centre, says "a farm with trees will suffer less to the impacts of climate change such as rainfall decline or increase in temperature because trees will absorb some of this impact". It is estimated that there are now 500m smallholder farms in the developing world, supporting the livelihood of about 2 billion people (pdf). This population continues to grow and according to president Mukherjee these small farmers are "economically vulnerable hence the need for agroforestry polices that can secure their future". As the population grows, land-holding sizes shrink. Agroforestry is one of the ways of making use of land for maximum returns in order to ensure socio-economic development. So why is agroforestry not at the top of the development agenda in many economies? President Mukherjee pointed to a lack of policy incentives, inadequate knowledge dissemination, legal constraints and poor coordination among its beneficiary sectors. According to S. Ayyappan, India's secretary of the department of agricultural research, although agroforestry has come of age as a scientific decipline, its impact on businesss and development sectors has not yet been appreciated. "The principal reason for this has been the various institutional, regulatory and technical constriants that impede its adoption," he said, adding that to overcome this problem, the government of India decided to formulate a national policy on agroforestry. He is now advising other governments to do the same. In order to ensure agroforestry has prominence in the development agenda, congress participants challenged business actors to engage with smallholder farmers to build robust supply chains, communicate with governments to remove barriers and increase incentives for agroforestry practices and systems to thrive. Governments and policymakers were encouraged to prioritise the promotion of agroforestry, investment and related infrastructure, restore degraded landscapes, establish sustainable enterprises and remove the constraints that hinder trees' contribution to farmers' livelihoods. Daniel M Kapsoot is media and public communications coordinator at the World Agroforestry Centre. Follow @Icraf on Twitter This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the Global Development Professionals Network |