Trees and Agricultural Production Systems

While agriculture is one of the greatest causes of deforestation and the associated biodiversity loss in Africa, smallholder agriculture also holds the key to conservation of the remaining biodiversity, increasing tree cover and reducing greenhouse emissions through tree planting activities. However, tree planting by smallholders and traditional agroforestry practices have not been well documented across the range of African farming systems. Using the farming systems lense, here we provide insights into how farmers are adapting tree planting to fit household needs and emerging market opportunities. We also highlight a number of important but poorly documented traditional agroforestry practices developed in each farming system. We conclude that tree planting and agroforestry projects in Africa have not been appropriately contextualized within a farming systems framework and farmers livelihood choices. This has led to the misconception that agroforestry technologies developed in one context could be successfully deployed in another. We argue that the failure of many tree planting projects to realize their potential arises from the lack of appreciation of the diversity of farming systems and farmers’ livelihood choices. We strongly recommend support for agroforestry practices through incentives such as payment for ecosystem services with specific focus on farmers livelihood choices.