Agroforestry

Agroforestry integrates trees with crops and/or livestock to create multifunctional landscapes that sustain agricultural productivity while delivering a wide range of ecosystem services. By combining woody perennials and annuals, it maintains soil fertility through nutrient cycling, reduces erosion by protecting the surface from wind and water, and buffers microclimates against extreme temperatures. Structural diversity of trees, shrubs and understorey vegetation supports pollinators and natural enemies of crop pests, enhances biodiversity and promotes landscape connectivity. Many systems—ranging from parklands and silvopastures to alley cropping, buffer strips and home gardens—also offer direct benefits including food, timber, fuel and fodder. Understorey crops such as coffee, cocoa and cereals respond to shading regimes that optimise productivity under varying rainfall and soil conditions. Agroforestry schemes play a key role in carbon sequestration, both above and below ground, and can be tailored to restore degraded and saline soils or to manage flood-prone or water-limited environments. The global expansion of agroforestry underscores its capacity to reconcile food security, climate resilience and rural livelihoods across tropical, temperate and arid regions.

Research from Nature Portfolio

A pioneering analysis of shade–tree cover in cocoa systems demonstrated that low-to-intermediate canopy densities (around 30%) maximise the trade-off between bean yield, soil fertility, carbon storage and biodiversity in West Africa, showing that moderate shade can deliver simultaneous gains in productivity and ecosystem health. A survey of smallholders near a Côte d’Ivoire national park identified gender, length of residence, cash-crop diversity and disease pressure as key factors influencing the widespread adoption of cocoa agroforestry, with more than 85% of farmers now incorporating shade-trees to sustain both incomes and forest values.

Research from all publishers

A novel planning framework applied to coffee landscapes in Costa Rica found that strategic restoration of native vegetation can increase forest cover by about 20% and double landholder profits over forty years by enhancing pollination services. A Brazilian study on regenerating forests revealed a time-lag of at least two decades before young woodland fragments boost coffee yields, emphasising that mature forest thresholds (around 20% cover) are essential for pollination and pest-control benefits. Research on home gardens in Rwanda showed that participation in small-scale tree–crop systems significantly improves household dietary diversity and nutritional status, especially among farmers with limited land or distant markets, highlighting the role of tree diversity in rural food security.

Agroforestry publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in agroforestry across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Agroforestry system: A land-use practice that combines trees or shrubs with crops and/or livestock to produce both ecological and economic benefits.

Ecosystem service: A benefit people obtain from ecosystems, including provisioning (e.g. food), regulating (e.g. climate), supporting (e.g. nutrient cycling) and cultural (e.g. heritage) functions.

Pollination service: The transfer of pollen by animals or wind that enables fruit and seed set in plants, often enhanced by agroforestry diversity.

Landscape connectivity: The degree to which the arrangement of habitat patches facilitates movement of organisms and ecological processes across the landscape.

Shade cover: The proportion of ground shaded by tree canopies, affecting microclimate, understorey light regimes and crop performance.

Carbon sequestration: The capture and long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide in biomass and soils.

References

1. Optimal restoration for pollination services increases forest cover while doubling agricultural profits. PLOS Biology (2023).
2. Evidence of time-lag in the provision of ecosystem services by tropical regenerating forests to coffee yields. Environmental Research Letters (2023).
3. Heterogeneous impacts of home-gardening on household food and nutrition security in Rwanda. Food Security (2023).
4. Drivers of cocoa agroforestry adoption by smallholder farmers around the Taï National Park in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire. Scientific Reports (2023).
5. Climate-smart sustainable agriculture in low-to-intermediate shade agroforests. Nature Sustainability (2018).
6. Agroforestry from a Global Perspective: Recent Developments, Technological Advancements, and Emerging Research Trends.