Agroforestry For Climate Resilience And Rural Livelihood

This book entitled “Agroforestry forClimate Resilience and Rural Livelihood” would help the readers to gain knowledge on importance of agroforestry for climate change and providing ecosystem services through many ways. This is a testimony and a ready reckoner to help to solve the challenges of climatic vagaries and resource degradation of natural resource bases. The compilation would certainly provide the steps that should be taken to meet the twin objective of climate resilience and livelihood security through adoption of agroforestry models. This book would definitely be helpful forpolicy makers, planners, academicians, students and scientists to suggest the technologies and strategies to the farmers for enhancing their productivity, economic stability, meeting nutritional security under the changing climatic scenario. The key features includes the idea of ecosystem services relevance in present day context, which otherwise was being neglected. The voluminous compilation will act as a boost for farmers to adopt agroforestry system in their pursuit for better environmental management and resilience against the climate change.

This book collects wide-ranging contributions such as case studies, reviews, reports on technological developments, outputs of research/studies, and examples of successful projects, presenting current knowledge and raising awareness to help the agriculture and forestry sectors find solutions for mitigating climate variability and adapting to change. It brings the topic of ecosystem services closer to education and learning, as targeted by the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. Climate change and its impacts on agriculture and agroforestry have been observed across the world during the last 50 years. Increasing temperatures, droughts, biotic stresses and the impacts of extreme events have continuously decreased agroforestry systems’ resilience to the effects of climate change. As such, there is a need to adapt farming and agroforestry systems so as to make them better able to handle ever-changing climate conditions, and to preserve habitats and ecosystems services.

The book is a collection of chapters that deal with agroforestry systems on small farms. It compiles a variety of suitable agroforestry systems that can both sequester carbon and mitigate climate change while also providing socio-economic benefits. The book also discusses the ways in which small landholders can use agroforestry to combat land degradation.

This volume discusses emerging contexts of agricultural and ecosystem resilience in Sub Saharan Africa, as well as contemporary technological advances that have influenced African livelihoods. In six sections, the book addresses the sustainable development goals to mitigate the negative impacts on agricultural productivity brought about by climate change in Africa. Some of the challenges assessed include soil degradation, land use changes, natural resource mismanagement, declining crop productivity, and economic stagnation. This book will be of interest to researchers, NGOs, and development organizations. Section 1 focuses on climate risk management in tropical Africa. Section 2 addresses the water-ecosystem-agriculture nexus, and identifies the best strategies for sustainable water use. Section 3 introduces Information Communication Technology (ICT), and how it can be used for ecosystem and human resilience to improve quality of life in communities. Section 4 discusses the science and policies of transformative agriculture, including challenges facing crop production and management. Section 5 addresses landscape processes, human security, and governance of agro-ecosystems. Section 6 concludes the book with chapters uniquely covering the gender dynamics of agricultural, ecosystem, and livelihood resilience.

This volume contains a solid body of the current state of knowledge on the various themes and activities in agroforestry worldwide. It is organized into three sections: the Introduction section consists of the summaries of six keynote speeches at the 2nd World Congress of Agroforestry held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009; that is followed by two sections of peer-reviewed thematic chapters grouped as “Global Perspectives” (seven chapters) and “Regional Perspectives” (eleven chapters), authored by professional leaders in their respective agroforestry-related fields worldwide. A total of 130 professionals from institutions in 33 countries in both developing and the industrialized temperate regions of the world contributed to the book as chapter authors and/or reviewers. Thus, the book presents a comprehensive and authoritative account of the global picture of agroforestry today.

The 'Addressing forestry and agroforestry in National Adaptation Plans: Supplementary guidelines' provide specific guidance for national adaptation planning in the forestry sector. They are intended to be used by national planners and decision–makers working on climate change issues in developing countries and authorities and experts who are contributing to climate change adaptation and NAP formulation and implementation.

Natural change in climate is slow and takes millions of years; and it is known to have made our planet hospitable to live. The climate change is not limited to one country or a continent. It is occurring across the globe as evident from droughts in Texas and flooding along the Missouri River in the United States and along the Red River in Canada. Climate change drives many stressors and interacts with many non-climatic stressors which make it difficult to forecast outcomes in any general way other than existing threats to agriculture. Agroforestry increases a high level of diversity within agricultural lands which supports numerous ecological and production services that bring resilience to the impact of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Climate change risk management is difficult in annual cropping systems due to increasing uncertainty of inter-annual variability in rainfall and temperature. Mixing of woody trees with crops, forage and livestock operations provides greater resilience to the inter-annual variability through crop diversification and increased resource use efficiency. Deep rooted trees allow better access to nutrients and water during droughts and when appropriately integrated into annual cropping systems and extract from different resource pools that would otherwise be lost from systems. Agroforestry increases soil porosity, reduces runoff and increases soil cover, which improve water infiltration and reduces moisture stress in low rainfall years. During periods of excessive soil moisture, tree based systems keep soils aerated by pumping out excess water and offer an economic return. The book contains 36 chapters mainly on agroforestry practices found in India and its role in climate change mitigation and adaptation.