Author(s):

Suman Adhikari, Soni Ghimire and Sushma Paneru

Abstract: Deforestation, growing scarcity of tree products, environmental degradation, climate change, have created serious problems for rural land use in many developing countries like Nepal. Nepal continues to face exacerbating poverty, decreasing agricultural productivity and food insecurity. Increasing population, accelerating deforestation, poor soil and water management, and increasing poverty and land degradation directly obstructed the food security and human health of millions of Nepalese people. Agroforestry systems viz., agri-silviculture, agri-horticulture, silvi-pastoral, agri-silvi-pastoral and other systems like aqua forestry, apiculture with tree species may increase food production and has been increasingly enlisted in the campaign to meet these threats to the rural economy. It possesses the potential to contribute to the food security due to the capacity of its various forms to offer multiple opportunities to farmers to enhance farm production and income. To achieve global food security, we need to approximately double food production over the coming decades. We need a multi-functioning agricultural system which can simultaneously enhance social and environmental goals. Agroforestry is emerging as the promising option to sustain agricultural productivity and livelihoods of farmers. With food shortages and increased threats of climate change, interest in agroforestry is gathering for its potential to address various on-farm adaptation needs, and fulfill many roles in Agriculture, Forestry and other land use (AFOLU) related mitigation pathways. In Nepal, 70 to 80 percent of the population are rural dwellers relying on forest lands and subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods. Various agroforestry techniques are finding enormous application in the hilly region of Nepal and are lifting many out of poverty and mitigating declining agricultural productivity and natural resources. Agroforestry as a sustainable practice helps to achieve both mitigation and adaptation objectives while remaining relevant to the livelihoods of the poor smallholder farmers. Nepalese people along with government now have the opportunity to rebalance agricultural policy and investment toward Agroforestry approach. In doing so, they could achieve important improvements on multiple international commitments around the interlinked themes of food security, climate change, biodiversity conservation, and social well-being through diverse food production, natural resource conservation, improving nutrition, health and increasing economic income of rural poor people. Thus, Agro-forestry as the sustainable agro-ecological approach can be successfully introduced to enhance an adaptive agricultural approach that can increase food security and livelihood options as well as addresses the climate change threats.

Pages: 2138-2141  |  1696 Views  256 Downloads

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