Abstract
Agroforestry represents a solution to land degradation by agriculture, but social barriers to wider application of agroforestry persist. More than half of all cropland in the USA is leased rather than owner-operated, and the short terms of most leases preclude agroforestry. Given insufficient research on tenure models appropriate for agroforestry in the USA, the primary objective of this study was to identify examples of farmers practicing agroforestry on land they do not own. We conducted interviews with these farmers, and, in several cases, with landowners, in order to document their tenure arrangements. In some cases, additional parties also played a role, such as farmland investors, a farmer operating an integrated enterprise, and non-profit organizations or public agencies. Our findings include eleven case studies involving diverse entities and forms of cooperation in multi-party agroforestry (MA). MA generally emerged from shared objectives and intensive planning. MA appears to be adaptable to private, investor, institutional, and public landowners, as well as beginning farmers and others seeking land access without ownership. We identify limitations and strategies for further research and development of MA.
Highlights
Agriculture plays a major role in local land degradation as well as global pressures on natural system boundaries [1,2,3,4]
Through the social networks of the authors and farms connected with the agroforestry-focused non-profit organization Savanna Institute, we identified 15 farms that potentially fit our criteria for multi-party agroforestry (MA): growing trees intentionally integrated with other crops or livestock on land not owned by the farmer
Our findings include 11 case studies of MA in the Midwest USA involving a variety of entities and forms of cooperation (Tables 2 and 3)
Summary
Agriculture plays a major role in local land degradation as well as global pressures on natural system boundaries [1,2,3,4]. Most efforts to make agriculture more sustainable focus on mitigating negative environmental impacts through marginal improvements such as increasing resource use efficiency of existing systems or curtailing destructive practices [5,6,7,8]. Farms often have substantial sunk costs in existing enterprises, which, along with the advanced average age of farmers, disincentivize investment in new enterprises featuring crops with long-term returns on investment [21]. On the other hand, are, in some ways, better positioned to practice agroforestry, but face a different set of constraints. Represents a major barrier for beginning farmers [24]. Because beginning farmers often lack capital for land purchase, leasing can be a more accessible option
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