The challenge of HIV/AIDS: Where does agroforestry fit in? - World ...

26World Agroforestry into the Futurewith regional and international markets.Wealth created in this way generally hasa multiplier effect that improves the entirelocal economy and can also benefit the nationalcommunity.Moreover, several studies have shown thatthere is rarely any real competition betweenfood crops and perennial tree crops. Foodsecurity is generally better in perennial treecrop zones than elsewhere (Krueger andBerg 2002). However, there are still risksin farming tree crops for a livelihood, particularlywhen there is centralized controlof tree crop markets that also extends tomarket and extension systems for food cropsgrown by the same farmers. If the marketfor tree products declines then the wholerural infrastructure may decline, as was thecase during the cocoa crisis in Cameroon inthe early 1990s and the more recent coffeecrisis in Kenya (Rice 2003; Ruf 1995) Treecrops have a considerable impact on landtenure. In societies where land ownershipis communal or customary, the perennialnature of the crops introduces profoundchanges in land distribution, hence in socialrelations because plantations tend to beowned by individuals or families rather thancollectively. Clearing land for plantations isan important avenue for securing tenure inareas with little formal land registration.The fact that tree crops are at the heart ofchanges in social and territorial structuresis only just beginning to be realized insome countries. “Tree crops have gonehand-in-hand with a territorializationprocess,” commented Charlery de laMasselière at Yamoussoukro (Charleryde la Masselière 2001).Many different kinds of social or tradingnetworks may be established or transformedbecause of tree crops. The qualityand nature of such networks is a decisiveelement in how well tree crops can contributeto sustainable community development.In many countries in the past, farmerscould not realize the benefits of theirwork owing to state and parastatal controlof market chains. Policies such as thosecontrolling taxation, extension, ‘forcedcooperation’ and farmers’ organizationsweakened the ability of farmers to improvetheir market position and hence alleviatepoverty. Those who benefited the mostwere the early adopters and landowners,including those who rented out land toothers and made a living from the profits(Berry 1975). Owing to this history, deregulationhas not helped because farmers arenot well organized to deal with large-scale,private-sector actors.Environmental importanceFor a long time, tree crop plantations wereextended by clearing forest on pioneerfronts, i.e. areas with low land occupationpressure that are therefore cheaper. Thiscontributed to deforestation, but at a timewhen environmental concerns were not apriority.Since the Rio Summit in 1992, environmentalconcerns have been acknowledgedas integral components of sustainabledevelopment. Faced with the threat ofdepletion of primary forests, land that hasalready been cultivated needs to be replanted.Perennial tree crops are forest-typecultivated ecosystems that can constitutesustainable systems:• They help to protect existing forests bysupplying wood for industry and energy.For example, in Sri Lanka “perennialcrop-based farming systems supply over50% of national timber and 80% of thefuelwood needs”, (Pushpakumara 2001).• They make a substantial contributiontowards carbon sequestration. For example,rubber trees can sequester morethan 100 tonnes of carbon per hectareover 33 years (Hamel and Eschbach2001).• The permanent cover and fairly systematicuse of cover crops effectively protectssoil from erosion. “A well-managedtea plantation results in an annual [soil]loss of only 0.24 t ha –1 , compared with25–100 t ha –1 for vegetables, potatoesand tobacco, and 0.3 t ha –1 for denseforest,” (Kaosa-ard and Rerkasem 1999).• Soil cover also reduces the risk of leaching,and legumes – often associated withtree crops – help to improve the nitrogenbalance.• Use of pesticides is limited: either theyare not necessary or farmers cannotafford them.• It is possible to maintain a degree ofdiversity in multi-storey plots such asthose for ‘jungle rubber’ in Indonesia,cocoa agroforests in Cameroon andintercropped coffee in Ethiopia, Indiaand Indonesia• Most perennial crops are less sensitive tofertility levels than food crops, and someof them can help to stabilize the agroecologyof marginal or degraded lands.In Central America, Arabica coffee treeshelp to fix many fragile mountain soils.While these are positive aspects of tree cropsystems, conservation biologists warn thateven complex tree crop/agroforestry systemsare not equivalent to natural forests.Furthermore, farm inputs such as pesticides,particularly the copper-based fungicidesused on cocoa, can harm other species. Treecrop plantations can encroach significantlyon protected areas (e.g. the cocoa beingplanted within Lore Lindu Park in Sulawesi,Indonesia; Schroth et al. 2004).