Rethinking Environmental Restoration Through Climate-Smart Agroforestry

Asia’s largest economic sector is agriculture, and the agriculture sector is significantly vulnerable to climate change. Climate change is fundamentally responsible for frequent crop failures, further resulting in a decreased yield year by year. To slow down the current rate of ecosystem degradation and to address population issues, embracing climate-smart agricultural practices is necessary, encompassing sustainable carbon sequestration, mitigation, and adaptation (tree-based synergy between global climate change and sustained production). Sustainable agriculture is the appropriate solution to challenges like food and nutritional security, biodiversity loss and land degradation, and the current rate of climate change. Agroforestry, a traditional agricultural method, still holds its relevance among the advanced climate-smart agricultural approaches, for its viability and affordability. Research over the past few decades confirms the stabilizing power of agroforestry, the sustenance of agroecosystems, and the enhancement of the green economy. Critical evaluation of literature reviews has aided in recognizing the indicators and metrics for mitigation and adaptation through agroforestry. To achieve the triple goals of sustained production, augmenting resilience, and addressing climate change, this chapter is an endeavor to condense the current knowledge and the available supporting evidences for the identification of agroforestry as a climate-smart agriculture practice.