Agroforestry
This intentional combination of agriculture and forestry has many benefits such as greatly enhanced crop yields, biodiversity, improved soil health, reduced land erosion, firewood and biomass production.
Agroforestry is a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland.
Trees produce a wide range of useful and marketable products from fruits/nuts, medicines, wood products, etc.
This intentional combination of agriculture and forestry has multiple benefits, such as greatly enhanced yields from staple food crops, enhanced farmer livelihoods from income generation, increased biodiversity, improved soil structure and health, reduced erosion, and carbon sequestration.
Agroforestry practices are highly beneficial in the tropics, especially in subsistence smallholdings in sub-Saharan Africa.
Agroforestry shares principles with intercropping but can also involve much more complex multi-strata agroforests containing hundreds of species.
Agroforestry can also utilize nitrogen-fixing plants such as legumes to restore soil nitrogen fertility. The nitrogen-fixing plants can be planted either sequentially or simultaneously.