Developing scales and tools for weather and climate related risk quantifications in agroforestry

Abstract

Similar to forestry, weather and climate related risks in agroforestry may broadly be arranged in three types of risks viz., instant risk, creeping risk and cumulative risk (see Sect. III.4.5.(β)) Interactions in agroforestry systems take place mainly via microclimate, sharing of soil and sharing of soil resources. Agroforestry has a particular potential to help check or reverse degradation of soil, forest and pasture resources. Agroforestry systems could be designed to suit virtually any set of environmental conditions in the tropics and subtropics. The greatest potential contribution that particularly indigenous agroforestry makes is through tree management in densely populated steep lands (Young 1987; Tiffen et al. 1994). Kusumandari and Mitchell (1997) concluded from a model based study that agroforestry was an optimal land use to minimize soil loss. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.