Silviculture and Cinegetics Review - Societatea Progresul Silvic

FORESTRY BELTS SILVICULTURE AND CINEGETICS REVIEW XVII/30/2012
Agroforestry systems
Mihăilă Elena, Costăchescu Corneliu, Dănescu Florin
1. Introduction
Although agroforestry systems refer to widespread
and long applied practices, the science, the research
regarding this is relatively new, the main boost being
given by the presentation in 1977 of the study "Trees,
food and people" by JG Bene, H.W. Beall and A.
Cote, which emphasized the importance of research
for improving agroforestry systems. A first and
immediate result of the debate on this research was
the establishment of the International Council for
Research on Agroforestry Systems (ICRAF), based in
Nairobi, Kenya (MacDicken and Vergara, 1990).
Specifically, agroforestry systems include all land use
systems in which forest species are deliberately
maintained or introduced into agricultural or livestock
production to benefit from the environmental and
economic interaction result. It is therefore a broad
concept, which includes all forms of association
between trees and / or shrubs, on the one hand, and
crops and / or animals, on the other hand.
Agroforestry systems integrate trees with different
crops and / or animals, with the main objective to
reduce the possibility of certain risks (desertification,
land degradation, etc.) and to increase total
production. Increased production (predictable) is a
major goal for rural developers, but it is not the only
expected benefit of agroforestry systems.
In our country, the term agroforestry systems is a new
concept, and often used with partial and inconclusive
meaning, although the association of trees and / or
shrubs with agricultural crops, pastures, animals has
been practiced for a long time and in different ways.
Associating components from different areas (forestry
and agriculture) an interdisciplinary field is being
shaped, divided equally between foresters and
agronomists. Thus, agroforestry systems must be
analyzed each time, in two senses. The main purpose
for which such agroforestry systems are established is
getting additional productivity, diversified, of quality,
and in terms of ensuring a high environmental and
economic stability. The interest shown is due to the
effects of climate change and the degradation of
ecosystems, agroforestry systems ensuring long-term
increase of environmental quality and conservation of
natural resources. In short term, they can maintain
balance and ecosystem functionality, may increase
their diversity, can mitigate greenhouse gas (by
storing carbon) and have favorable socio-economic
effects (providing jobs, varied production and of
quality etc.).
Therefore, in the current context agroforestry systems
are not intended to replace stable, specialized and
productive systems, but to improve those undergoing
degradation, unstable, in areas affected by drought,
aridity etc. By integrating trees into agricultural
systems it is ensured a more efficient use of light,
water and nutrients than is generally possible in pure
crops.
Although the experience of other countries in the
adoption of agroforestry systems cannot be accepted a
priori, although the benefits of the association of
forest and agricultural crops are evident, they may be
at least a boost in the application of certain types of
agroforestry systems in our country.
2. Possibilities of associating forest
vegetation with agricultural crops and /
or animals
In agroforestry systems there are three categories of
items or components: woody species (trees and
shrubs), herbaceous species (crops and forage
species) and animals. In any agroforestry system there
must be the forest component (woody species - trees,
bushes), without which there is no discussion about
an agroforestry system.
Forest vegetation association with agricultural crops
and / or animals shall be different resulting in various
agroforestry systems that can be classified in different
ways. The main feature of agroforestry systems is that
the combination of components is made
simultaneously on the same field (Fig. 1).
62