Increasing smallholder resilience through agroforestry

Resilience refers to the capacity for ecological systems to persist and absorb changes. Climate-change resilience encompasses a dual function, to absorb shock as well as to self-renew to cope with new circumstances. Agroforestry offers both mitigation and adaptation strategies for enhancing smallholder resilience. Increased biomass production in multi-species agroforestry combinations enhances carbon sequestration (mitigation mechanism) in biomass and soils. Management of crop components of agroforestry systems through conservation-agriculture and agroecological farming methods including residue/mulching/ground-cover management, crop diversification, water management, and fertilizer-use efficiency enhances the ability of the whole system to adapt better to climate change.

Presenter: Dr. P.K. Nair, Distinguished Professor at the University of Florida, is a world leader in agroforestry and sustainable land-use systems, a pioneering researcher and educator, and one of the founders of ICRAF (World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya).