Multifunctional Agroforestry Systems In India For Livelihoods: Current Knowledge And Future Challenges

Land-use options that increase resilience and reduce vulnerability of contemporary societies are fundamental to livelihoods improvement and adaptation to environmental change. Agroforestry as a traditional land-use adaptation may potentially support livelihoods improvement through simultaneous production of food, fodder and firewood as well as mitigation of the impact of climate change. Drawing on the representative literature, The paper critically reviews the contribution of agroforestry systems in India to: (i) biodiversity conservation; (ii) yield of goods and services to society; (iii) augmentation of the carbon storage in agroecosystems; (iv)enhancing the fertility of the soils; and (v) providing social and economic well-being to people. Future research is required to remove many of the uncertainties that remain, and also carefully test the main functions attributed to agroforestry against alternative land-use options in order to know unequivocally to what extent agroforestry served these purposes.