An Assignment
on
Role of Agroforestry in the Mitigation of Climate Change
Course Title: Environmental Protection in Agroforestry
Course Code: AGROF 515
Climate Change: Changes in the earth’s weather, especially due to the increase in
the temperature of the earth atmosphere that is caused in part by the increase of carbon
dioxide.
IPCC defines, climate change as a statistically significant variation in either the mean state
of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period. Climate change may
be due to natural internal process or external process, or persistent anthropogenic
changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use.
Climate change is happening now and urgent action is required to limit the temperature
increase to 1.5 degrees (IPCC, 2019). Climate change risks (e.g. severe droughts, flooding,
diseases) can have extensive impacts on agricultural systems, triggering soil erosion, crop
failure, loss of biodiversity, reduced soil moisture, pest damages and economic losses. More
extreme events and greater occurrence of drier and wetter conditions are already making it
difficult for farmers to plan planting and harvesting, threatening current production systems
and food security as a result. Trees, forests and agriculture are key to reducing carbon
emissions and achieving the Paris Agreement targets. Replanting the right tree species in
the right place can help farmers adapt to climatic impacts.
Agroforestry and its impact on climate change:
Agrofortestry is an ecologically sustainable land use system that maintains increase total
yields by combining food crops (annuals) with tree crops (perennials) and/or livestock on
the same unit of land.
Agroforestry is increasingly recognized as a land management system that can serve as a
response option for both climate change adaptation and mitigation, while addressing
many of the challenges that smallholder farmers are facing. Agroforestry can generate
multiple livelihood and environmental benefits, as it can help to mitigate climate change
and help farmers to adapt to extreme and variable weather (IPCC, 2019). Agroforestry
supports tree-related ecosystem services, such as regulation of water and sediment
flows, carbon and nutrient cycling in soils and it provides habitat for biodiversity. This
leads to increased soil fertility, reduced soil erosion and flood and pest control. Benefits
of agroforestry to smallholder farmers include increased farm productivity and reduction
of external inputs such as conventional fertilizers and chemicals for pest management,
leading to increased income.
In our general cultivation system a large hectare of land remain fallow as a boundaries or
waste land. Through Agroforestry system we can use this land as a productive land by
planting Acacia nilotica, Acacia catechu, Delbergia sisso, Mangifera indica, Zizypus
mauritiana and Gmelina arborea etc in farmland. It plays a crucial role in climate change
mitigation especially due to its tree component. Trees accumulate co2( which is the most
predominant GHG) in their biomass.
Therefore agroforestry system is economically and ecologically sound practices with
enhancement of overall farm productivity, soil enrichment through litter fall, maintaining
environment services such as climate change mitigation, phytoremediation, water shed
protection and biodiversity conservation.
Figure: Carbon sequestration through agroforestry system.
Carbon sequestration through agroforestry system: agroforestry
provides a promising and alternative system in reducing and mitigating co2 from the
atmosphere through carbon sequestration. A significant amount of carbon emission caused by
human activity could be reduced by establishing agroforestry systems.Carbon emission is higher
from deforestation and forest degradation. However, this can be managed through the
sustainable management of land and forest. The enhancement of forest C stocks through
agroforestry can be considered as one of the main options for reducing greenhouse gases in
atmosphere. For instance, the U.S. produces about 25% of global CO2 emissions from burning
fossil fuels. The greatest role of agroforestry in relation to climate change is perhaps in
mitigating the emissions of CO2 by productively sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. The
adoption of agroforestry practice has greater potential to increase C sequestration of
predominantly agriculture dominated landscapes than the monocrop agriculture.
AGROFORESTRY FOR ADAPTATION AND ECOSYSTEM
RESILIENCE :
Climate change can increase risk for agriculture such as droughts, flooding and pests.
The ability of farmers to continue living on their land depends on how well they adapt to
climate change risks. Agroforestry for climate adaptation at the farm level and enhanced
resilience at the landscape level can take many forms. For instance, agroforestry can
reduce air pollution and enhance both warming and cooling of the atmosphere, creating
a resilient microclimate for crops and livestock. The potential to improve soil properties
and water availability to plants also make agroforestry practices suitable for landscape
restoration. Moreover, trees provide a number of ecosystem services, such as water
regulation, climate buffering, soil fertility, erosion and flood control, as well as food,
fodder, medicine and wood all important for resilience to climate change and reduced
vulnerability of local people.
Food security through Agroforestry system:
Climate change has direct impacts on food systems, food security, and, through the
need to mitigate, potentially increases the competition for resources needed for
agriculture. Responding to climate change through deployment of land-based
technologies for negative emissions based on biomass production would increasingly
put pressure on food production and food security through potential competition for land.
Agro forestry has a large role to play in improving present and future food security
worldwide. Food security by restoring farm soil fertility for food crops and production of
fruits, vegetables, nuts and edible oils. Reducing deforestation and pressure on forest by
providing fuel wood grown on farms.
Woody perennial based production systems, such as agro forestry, have the potential to
meet the food security of people. Farmers depend more on annual crops, the small and
marginal farmers in the tropics have long been practicing agro forestry to meet their
food, fodder and fuel requirements. Agro forestry can provide new and useful solutions
to many of the adverse consequences of human land use, including increased
diversification of agricultural production system, increased yield of crops and livestock ,
increased the farmers' income and ensure food security
Agro forestry can improve livelihoods in smallholder farming systems through diversified
income and cash crop systems (e.g. cocoa, coffee, nuts), increased food security and
improved access to nutritious food. Trees on farms can also help the farmers reduce the
economic recovery time after natural disaster. Climate adaptation is particularly
important for female farmers as they often have less access to resources compared to
their male counterparts. Female farmers produce a major part of the food in many
developing regions, but generally do not have the same opportunities to improve their
livelihoods.
Figure: Benefits of Agroforestry system
Net Greenhouse gas mitigation in Agroforestry: Agriculture together
with agro-forestry systems are perceived as a source of significant greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions, with concomitant potentials for mitigation. It is among the economic sectors
having the largest GHG mitigation potential. Conversion to invigorating land uses and
implementation of recommended management practices (RMP) can enhance soil organic
carbon (SOC). The adoption of these alternatives is likely to have considerable benefits for
some cropping systems under moderate climate change. The C sequestration potential in
soils of terrestrial ecosystems is 3x109 tonnes C/year or 0.05% reduction of atmospheric
CO2 at the rate of 1 Mg/ha/year by improving C pool by the end of the year 2099. The role
of forest and grasslands as a sink for atmospheric CO2 is the subject of active debate. The
carbon stock for the period 2006–2030 is projected to increase from 8.79x109 tonnes C to
9.75x109 tonnes C with forest cover becoming more or less stable, and new forest carbon
accretions coming from the current initiatives of afforestation and reforestation
programme. With the knowledge and information that is now emerging, the role of agro-
forest and plantations in mitigation is becoming more and more important. Agroforestry
practices in the humid tropics showed that these systems were able to mitigate N2O
andCO2 emissions from soils and increase the CH4 sink strength compared to cropping
systems. Due to the use of no-till farming and the adoption of agroforestry systems with
reduced machinery use, fuel inputs and CO2 emissions. No-till farming in these systems
may increase organic carbon and nitrogen content in the soil, and the microbial biomass,
mitigating GHG emissions.
Agroforestry as a potential mitigation strategy:
Climate change has strong relationship with agriculture; typically, in developing countries
where their livelihood directly associates to farming activities which particularly used rain
fed. A tropical agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture is vulnerable, as
smallholder farmers do not have adequate resources to adapt to climate change. Used
improved agricultural practiced incorporating with trees is one of the alternating and
promising strategies to combat climate change. In fact, currently agroforestry is going to
be a “bright sector” for combating climate change in different parts of the world.
Additionally, agroforestry is considered as cost-effective strategy. Agroforestry systems
have the potential to provide significant mitigation options, but they require proper
management that influences the amount of carbon sequestered. Under his study, in
Africa while agroforestry may play a significant role in mitigating the atmospheric
accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG), it also has a role to play in helping smallholder
farmers adapt to climate change. Agroforestry practices can reduce or remove significant
amounts of GHGs through increased carbon storage in biomass above-ground and
below-ground and in soil organic carbon. Integrating agroforestry into cropping and
livestock keeping systems can enhance carbon sequestration by significant amounts.
Home gardening, boundary planting, fruit orchards, riverine, hedgerows, woodlots and
firewood lots are major agroforestry practices that sequester CO2. Agroforestry stores
more carbon than pastures and fields with annual crops, but less than forested areas.
Reference:
Toppo P, Raj A. Role of agroforestry in climate change mitigation. Journal of
Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry. 2018;7(2):241-3.
Tewari JC, Pareek K, Shiran K, Gaur MK. Potential of Agroforestry for Climate change
mitigation. New India Publishing Agency.
Chavan S, Newaj R, Keerthika A, Ram A, Jha A, Kumar A. Agroforestry for adaptation
and mitigation of climate change. Popular Kheti. 2014 Jul;2(3):214-20.
Bangroo SA, Ali T, Mahdi SS, Najar GR, Sofi JA. Carbon and greenhouse gas mitigation
through soil carbon sequestration potential of adaptive agriculture and agroforestry
systems. Range Management & Agroforestry. 2013 Jun 1;34(1):1-1
Torres CM, Jacovine LA, de Olivera Neto SN, Fraisse CW, Soares CP, de Castro Neto F,
Ferreira LR, Zanuncio JC, Lemes PG. Greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration
by agroforestry systems in southeastern Brazil. Scientific Reports. 2017 Dec 1;7(1):1-7.
Seminar, Zabed-Al-Riyad, Role of Agroforestry in achieving food security.
Submitted to:
Dr. Md. Omar Sharif
Assistant Professor
Department of Agroforestry and Environmental Science
Sylhet Agricultural University
Sylhet 3100
Submitted by:
Mou Das
Reg. no.: 3192
Roll no.: 2001021005
Department of Agroforestry and Environmental Science
Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet 3100
