Agroforestry to Enhance Livelihood Security in Africa: Research Trends and Emerging Challenges

Abstract

Africa faces intricate challenges including severe shortage of food, fuelwood and fodder primarily due to increasing human and livestock population and subsistence agriculture. Deforestation, declining soil fertility and soil erosion are the crucial indicators of land degradation. Most of the dry regions experience food shortage due to low crop yields in the nutrient-depleted soils. Farmers are forced to extend cultivation to marginal and erosion-prone soil clearing the forests. Continuous cultivation has replaced the traditional shifting cultivation and fallow systems, which have been practised to regenerate soil fertility in most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Following the inception of the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in 1987, traditional agroforestry systems have been carefully documented through the diagnosis and design phase in the late 1980s, and new agroforestry innovations were tested at research stations and on farms mostly in tropical countries across the world. Many improved agroforestry options are now being disseminated and used by resource-poor farmers in SSA. In this chapter, both traditional and improved agroforestry systems in SSA, which form a basis of food security for resource-poor farmers, have been described briefly. Tracing the linkages and prospects of agroforestry systems to enhance food security, attempt has been made to report existing status of indigenous forest and fruit tree species, domestication of indigenous fruit trees, utilisation and nutritional quality of tree products and fruit transformation into commercial products as reported in various studies. In this review, we highlight the state of research on different agroforestry systems, the role of trees in amelioration/reclamation of degraded lands, soil and water conservation, hydrological benefits, microclimatic modifications and biodiversity conservation. In addition, we identified constraints, issues of agroforestry adoption and technical areas still requiring scientific inputs. In a synthesis of research trends and emerging challenges, agroforestry has tremendous potential for food security, increasing land productivity and enhancing livelihood security particularly in degraded and dry regions of SSA. The widespread adoption of agroforestry technology supported by continued participatory research and dissemination can be instrumental to achieve the goals of poverty alleviation, food security, soil conservation and environmental sustainability in different regions of Africa, particularly in the scenario of climate change.