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Agroforestry (also known as agro-sylviculture or forest farming) is a land use management system that integrates trees with crops or pasture.

As a polyculture system, an agroforestry system can produce timber and wood products, fruits, nuts, other edible plant products, edible mushrooms, medicinal plants, ornamental plants, animals and animal products, and other products from both domesticated and wild species. Agroforestry can be practiced for economic, environmental, and social benefits, and can be part of sustainable agriculture. Apart from production, benefits from agroforestry include improved farm productivity, healthier environments, reduction of risk for farmers, beauty and aesthetics, increased farm profits, reduced soil erosion, creating wildlife habitat, less pollution, managing animal waste, increased biodiversity, improved soil structure, and carbon sequestration. Agroforestry practices are especially prevalent in the tropics, especially in subsistence smallholdings areas, with particular importance in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to its multiple benefits, for instance in nutrient cycle benefits and potential for mitigating droughts, it has been adopted in the US and Europe.

At its most basic, agroforestry is any of various polyculture systems that intentionally integrate trees with crops or pasture on the same land. An agroforestry system is intensively managed to optimize helpful interactions between the plants and animals included, and "uses the forest as a model of practices". Agroforestry can also utilise nitrogen-fixing plants such as legumes to restore soil nitrogen fertility. Many farmers practicing agroforestry do not identify their land use as "agroforestry", signaling a need for greater education and awareness to increase adoption of these sustainable practices.

The term "agroforestry" was coined in 1973 by Canadian forester John Bene, but the concept includes agricultural practices that have existed for millennia. However, indigenous communities that have lived in close relationships with forest ecosystems have practiced agroforestry informally for centuries. Likewise Native Americans in the eastern United States extensively altered their environment and managed land as a "mosaic" of woodland areas, orchards, and forest gardens. Agroforestry in the tropics is ancient and widespread, notably in the form of "tropical home gardens." Some of those plots have been continuously cultivated for centuries. A "home garden" in Central America could contain 25 different species of trees and food crops on just one-tenth of an acre. The most studied agroforestry practices involve a simple interaction between two components, such as simple configurations of hedges or trees integrated with a single crop. There is significant variation in agroforestry systems and the benefits they have.

Agroforestry systems can provide advantages over conventional agricultural and forest production methods.

Trees in agroforestry systems can produce wood, fruits, nuts, and other useful products.

A well-studied agroforestry hillside system is the Quesungual Slash and Mulch Agroforestry System in Lempira Department, Honduras.

Kuojtakiloyan is a Masehual term that means 'useful forest' or 'forest that produces', and it is an agroforestry system developed and maintained by indigenous peoples of the Sierra Norte of the State of Puebla, Mexico.

Syntropic farming, syntropic agriculture or syntropic agroforestry is an organic, permaculture agroforestry system developed by Ernst Götsch in Brazil.

The United States Department of Agriculture distinguishes five applications of agroforestry for temperate climates, namely alley cropping, forest farming, riparian forest buffers, silvopasture, and windbreaks.

Urban agroforestry is the application of agroforestry principles in urban and suburban environments, where reduced ecological functioning is common.

The UN state that the implementation of urban agroforestry systems offer a range of ecosystem services that can improve the health and resilience of urban areas.

Urban food forests are a form of urban agroforestry that mimic the natural forest ecosystem.

Agroforestry Practices Archived 2013-03-09 at the Wayback Machine by The Center for Agroforestry, University of Missouri.

The short film Agroforestry Practices – Riparian Forest Buffers (2004) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive..

Quick Facts

• As a polyculture system, an agroforestry system can produce timber and wood products, fruits, nuts, other edible plant products, edible mushrooms, medicinal plants, ornamental plants, animals and animal products, and other products from both domesticated and wild species.
• Agroforestry can be practiced for economic, environmental, and social benefits, and can be part of sustainable agriculture.
• Apart from production, benefits from agroforestry include improved farm productivity, healthier environments, reduction of risk for farmers, beauty and aesthetics, increased farm profits, reduced soil erosion, creating wildlife habitat, less pollution, managing animal waste, increased biodiversity, improved soil structure, and carbon sequestration.
• Many farmers practicing agroforestry do not identify their land use as "agroforestry", signaling a need for greater education and awareness to increase adoption of these sustainable practices.
• Agroforestry practices are especially prevalent in the tropics, especially in subsistence smallholdings areas, with particular importance in sub-Saharan Africa.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Agroforestry". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.