Are there different sorts of agroforestry?
Yes there are many kinds, but they can be grouped into 3 main categories: • ways of combining trees with food crops (silvo-arable systems); • combinations of trees with domesticated animals (silvo-pastoral systems); • multiple systems that include trees, crops and animals. What methods combine crop plants with trees? A great range of systems in different regions. Some are traditional, some novel, and others are a mixture of both. They generally involve: • crops alternating with a fallow period under trees; and/or • crops grown amongst trees. Traditional shifting cultivation was often a combination of (1) and (2). But isn’t shifting cultivation outdated? It has in fact been practised sustainably for centuries, but: • the declining amount and fertility of land available, and • the pressure of increasing human populations, mean that nowadays it is often not sustainable. It may lead to site degradation if done: • with a short fallow period (1–6 years instead of 15–20 years), particularly w
