A Review on Agroforestry Practices for Improving Socioeconomic and Environmental Status

Abstract

Agroforestry has been defined as a dynamic ecologically based natural resources management system that through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all levels. This paper highlights agroforestry practices for improving socioeconomic and environmental status. Agriculture sector has become a major contributor to the national gross domestic product and their high demand for agro-based products has increased the expansion of agricultural land through monoculture systems. However, as the land for agriculture is decreasing, due to converting more natural forests into agricultural land. The unstable nature of the world climate, attributed to human activities, depletion of forest cover due to increased hunger for forest and non-forest products has caused a lot of environmental problems such as, land erosion, flooding, frequent and severe storm, depletion of soil fertility, natural disaster as well as seasonal changes of world climate. The systems as the sustainable agriculture practices they contribute to the positive development in agriculture industry in terms of environmental, social, and economic aspects. It shows that agroforestry systems are performing better than monoculture systems as they are eco-friendly, socially reasonable and economically feasible through diversification of input and output.