Earlier this month, leading lights in a branch of sustainable farming met in India to discuss the future of agroforestry, which proponents claim could bring numerous benefits and lead to a greening of agriculture through the reintroduction of trees into the farmed landscape.

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Although the approach is thousands of years old, recent developments in scientific understanding have shed new light on traditional production systems, and shown how agroforestry can boost productivity whilst providing a range of co-benefits.

The World Congress on Agroforestry was held in New Delhi between 10th and 14th February, and was attended by over 1,000 delegates representing private, research, and development organisations. Research into agroforestry has consistently shown the potential of the approach, but policy has often failed to build on these research findings.  

A report published late last year by an international team from various Agroforestry research centres and Charles Sturt University in Australia showed that trees and agro-forests can play a major part in providing the key elements of more 'sustainable diets.' However, limited research and support from government policy makers has slowed uptake of the approach amongst farmers and communities who could otherwise benefit from wider use of agroforestry.

Looking at examples from South America, the Caribbean and Africa, the report's authors called for international action to increase uptake and understanding of agroforestry around the world. They showed that, although more than 1.6 billion people worldwide are – to some extent – reliant on forests for their livelihood, 30 percent of the world's forests are primarily used for producing wood products. The authors argued that, as an integrated approach incorporating crops, livestock, shrubs, and trees, agroforestry management could boost productivity and conservation work, leading to healthier ecosystems in managed forests.

Amy Ickowitz, a scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) added that, in many cases, diets could be improved through greater focus on agroforestry. Ickowitz said, "Food from the forest offers sources of essential nutrients like iron, vitamin A and zinc—often lacking from diets in developing countries."

Earlier research by the by the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative (LPFN) showed that investment in agroforestry provides more measurable benefits than other 'integrated landscape initiatives'. They suggested that this is due to its ability to deal simultaneously with a variety of challenges – including biodiversity, income diversification, dietary improvement and tackling soil erosion.

India becomes first nation to produce agroforestry policy

However, despite clear evidence of the potential of agroforestry for alleviating some of the pressing problems facing food producers worldwide, only one government in the world has so far developed a cohesive national policy on the approach. India alone has drafted a comprehensive policy to include agroforestry, and this was only approved in early February.

The Indian government policy recognises the benefits of agroforestry as a land-use system in enhancing productivity, biodiversity and environmental protection where it is implemented. Speaking during the World Congress, Indian president Shri Pranab Mukherjee said that, although in many cases the long growth periods of trees and slow establishment of agroforestry projects has discouraged would be growers around the world, strategies like agroforestry which bring long-term sustainability are more important now than ever before.

In Europe, researchers have said that high start-up costs, combined with an end to tree planting grants in many parts, have also limited uptake amongst farmers. President Pranab Mukherjee added that national governments therefore need to encourage support and investment for agroforestry projects.

Agroforestry schemes taking root: Situation in Europe

Although recent well-publicised research has focused on developing regions worldwide, farmer-led research projects are ongoing in Europe and French national agricultural research institute INRA has championed agroforestry, calling it "a policy of the future" and a key climate change adaptation measure. Its exponents believe it has a part to play in agriculture all over the world. This includes the UK, where soil erosion is a growing threat and changing weather patterns mean a lurch between periods of drought and intense rainfall – and flooding – is more likely.

In its budget announcement in October 2013, the European Parliament released €1 million for agroforestry in the EU. According to the European Agroforestry Federation (Euraf), "[The] project will… launch new European initiatives paving the way for genuine ownership of agroforestry by farmers."

The pilot project is intended to address the overall lack of information and support for farmers on various applications of agroforestry. In addition to raising awareness of the benefits of agroforestry in the agricultural world, the pilot scheme also aims to improve knowledge transfer between farmers and researchers and improve agroforestry practices.

In France, the area under agroforestry increased from a negligible amount to 10,000 hectares in the five years to 2013. According to EU sources, about 3,000 additional hectares are currently being given over to agroforestry each year in France, and the area under agroforestry management is expected to grow to 500,000 hectares over the next 25 years.

A €6m INRA-led project Agforward will run from 2014-2018, with the participation of partners in 16 countries. Christian Dupraz, a researcher at Montpellier's UMR unit, said, "Agroforestry has developed over the last 5 years... Farmers now know what it is. And it is possible for all crops, or almost all, so long as they can adapt to the density of trees."

Sharing hopes for the future, he added that, under the Agforward project and others, "We hope to develop 'second generation' agroforestry systems – more subtle ones, with a mix of more species of tree. This way they would be less susceptible to disease, which could affect a single species."

However, in spite of the recent research grants, some environmentalists claim that EU policy may be hampering the roll out of agroforestry projects. Writer George Monbiot has warned that EU policy often constrains farmers, forcing them to keep land bare, whereas farmer-led experiments have unearthed evidence of wide-reaching benefits from including trees in uplands landscapes, including reducing water run-off from the hills.  

At the end of the congress, delegates issued a joint statement, calling on governments and policy makers to form national agroforestry policies to support new projects, which have the potential to restore damaged landscapes and sustainably diversify farmers' incomes by re-establishing trees as a key part of their livelihoods.