Why in News? Despite the launch of the National Agroforestry Policy (2014), the uptake of agroforestry remains restricted to farmers with medium or large landholdings in India.

What is Agroforestry? A diversified land-use practice integrating crops, trees and livestock is broadly known as agroforestry. It can enhance farmer livelihoods and the environment and is slowly gaining in popularity after decades of monocropping inspired by the Green Revolution.

What are the Initiatives to Promote Agroforestry in India?

1. Trees Outside of Forests India’ (TOFI) initiative: It’s a joint initiative of the USAID and India’s MoEFCC. It seeks to enhance tree cover in 7 Indian states by identifying promising expansion opportunities
2. Jaltol: It is an open-source water-accounting tool developed by the Bengaluru-based WELL Labs to assess which trees don’t compete with the crops for water. For example, mango plantations don’t compete with kharif crops in the central Karnataka plateau.
3. Diversity for Restoration: It is a decision support tool that provides a tailored list of climate-resilient species that reverse land degradation while diversifying livelihood opportunities through agroforestry.
4. Payment for ecosystem services (PES): In PES, an ecosystem service user, e.g. a food processing company, volunteers to pay a service provider, such as a small farmer, for trees promoting a service like pollination.

Why is Agroforestry Remains Restricted to Medium or Large Farmers? Small farmers seldom grow trees because of their long gestation, a lack of incentive or investment-based capital, and weak market linkages. Water availability and government policies and schemes have been recurrent concerns for small farmers across states. For example, the Indian Forest and Wood Certification Scheme 2023 has an exhaustive list of eligibility criteria for farmers and industries.

How can Agroforestry be Widely Adopted by Engaging Small Farmers? Although secure land tenure is a prerequisite for agroforestry uptake, ensuring economic viability through market linkages while meeting the criteria of sustainable agroforestry is crucial to empower these farmers.