Assessing the role of agriculture-forestry-livestock nexus in improving farmers' food security in South Asia: A systematic literature review

Abstract

CONTEXTThere is a growing consensus that agriculture, forestry, and livestock integration (agroforestry systems) could assist South Asia in combating food insecurity by expediting the transition towards sustainability. However, there is a dearth of a comprehensive synthesis of evidence demonstrating the actual relevance of this nexus to agroecological development and farmers' food security in South Asia—the majority of whom are smallholders with limited assets. OBJECTIVEThe main objective of this study is to evaluate the potentiality of the South Asian agroforestry systems- as a viable agroecological approach for ensuring farmers' food security: food availability, access, utilization, and stability. METHODSA systematic literature review was conducted following the guidelines provided by the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses” (PRISMA) to achieve the study objective. The Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection databases were used, along with Google Scholar as an additional database, to gather relevant articles for the review. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSAmong the 95 studies reviewed, only nine explicitly focused on food security, and none of them examined all four dimensions of food security simultaneously. Moreover, the skewed distribution of studies towards the Himalayan belt and a lack of quantitative measurement make it challenging to determine the extent to which agroforestry improved farmers' food security. However, the review identified several pathways, such as diversification of food options (n = 53), fodder supply (n = 57), income increase (n = 73) and diversification (n = 64), fuel wood supply (n = 59), fulfillment of medicinal needs (n = 30), and soil enrichment (n = 36), through which the integration of agriculture, forestry, and livestock could contribute to the food security. However, some studies found certain drawbacks, such as a decrease in agricultural crop yield (n = 29), breeding of pests and diseases (n = 10), and a longer gestation period (n = 9), which could threaten food and livelihood security. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that appropriate species selection and effective management practices can help mitigate these negative impacts. SIGNIFICANCEThe findings of this study will aid in the effective policy formulation to ensure food security by providing decision-makers and last-mile institutions with information on the benefits and drawbacks of the agricultural, forestry, and livestock nexus. Furthermore, the review findings would allow for cross-temporal and cross-spatial comparisons. Future research would benefit from the review approach used in this work as well as the identified research gaps.