Forestry contributes in myriad of ways to sustainable agricultural production and food security. The greatest contribution is through its protective environmental functions such as the maintenance and restoration of soil fertility and soil improvement, erosion control and maintenance of biodiversity. Forestry also contributes in many other ways such as through the direct production of food, provision of rural employment and income. A detailed discussion of these contributions is made below.
How does forestry contribute to sustainable agriculture?
Forestry contributes in myriad of ways to sustainable agricultural production and food security. The greatest contribution is through its protective environmental functions such as the maintenance and restoration o fertility and soil improvementf soil , erosion control and maintenance of biodiversity.
Why is forestry important to humans?
While forests have always been one of the key reasons ensuring human survival on this planet, the pressing issues of environmental change and resource depletion have made it more important than ever to handle forest resources effectively. Here are ten reasons why forestry is important: #1. Forestry provides for forest goods.
What are the advantages of agroforestry economics?
Agroforestry economics enhances the assortment of production in the system. This, in turn, leads to the reduction of the chances of economic failure. Improved and maintainable productivity enhances the levels of agricultural income.
How does agroforestry help in preventing soil erosion?
Prevents Soil Erosion: In dry areas, competition between crops and trees becomes a big issue. Agroforestry helps in increasing availability of water to soil. In this way, it aids in prevention of soil erosion, aids in water retention and promote soil fertility. This serves as a solution for regions that experiences irregular rainfall.
What is forestry and why is it important?
They purify the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, prevent erosion, and act as an important buffer against climate change. Forests offer a home to much of the world’s diverse array of plants and animals and provide essential natural resources from timber and food to medicinal plants.
What is the most important component in agriculture?
The main components of both sustainable farming and conventional farming are exactly the same: soil management, crop management, water management, disease/pest management and waste management.
How does forestry affect agriculture?
Forest Fires Forests are set ablaze to clear space for cattle and feed crops, taking vegetation and wildlife with them. These intentional fires — often called slash-and-burn fires — alter water cycles, compromise soil fertility, and threaten communities of people living and working within the forests.
What are the 10 reasons forests are important?
Covering 31 percent of the earth, they are nature’s factories for producing clean air, water, and creating a safe haven for all living organisms around them. They provide habitat for thousands of species and support the lives of 1.6 billion people.
What are the main components of agriculture?
It’s the methods used that are often radically different. The five components of agricultural revolution are Machinery, land under cultivation, fertilizers and pesticides, irrigation, and high-yielding varieties of plants.
What are the three component of agriculture?
Conservation agriculture (CA) as recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations consists of three components: minimum soil disturbance, soil cover, and crop rotation/association.
What is forestry in agriculture?
Forestry is the practice of managing and maintaining forest lands for commercial, public, and agricultural uses. There are many different forest management methods, and the goal of all the methods is to create a sustainable forest environment that will be there for many harvests or just for its natural benefit.
Is forestry a type of agriculture?
Forest farming is the cultivation of high-value crops under the protection of a managed tree canopy. In some parts of the world, this is called multi-story cropping and when used on a small scale in the tropics it is sometimes called home gardening.
How do forests contribute to crop farming?
Forests and trees contribute to crop production by reducing soil erosion and nutrient leaching. Nitrogen-fixing trees also maintain and enhance soil fertility by cycling atmospheric nitrogen, thereby increasing yields.
Why forest is an important resource?
Forests help in maintaining the temperature and oxygen level of the atmosphere. Plants release oxygen during photosynthesis and consume carbon dioxide. Forests being a huge reserve of plants and trees, they play a significant role in balancing oxygen level in the atmosphere.
What are the 5 benefits of forests?
Here’s how:Trees add beauty and improve personal health.Trees reduce air pollution.Trees fight the atmospheric greenhouse effect.Trees conserve water and reduce soil erosion.Trees save energy.Trees modify local climate.Trees increase economic stability.Trees reduce noise pollution.More items…
What are the advantages of forests?
Forestry benefits urban environments. Urban foresters manage forests and trees to help benefit communities. Forests in urban areas can reduce storm water runoffs, improve air quality, and reduce energy consumption.
How does forest contribute to agriculture?
The greatest contribution is through its protective environmental functions such as the maintenance and restoration of soil fertility and soil improvement, erosion control and maintenance of biodiversity. Forestry also contributes in many other ways such as through the direct production of food, provision of rural employment and income. A detailed discussion of these contributions is made below.
How does forest contribute to food security?
Forest also contributes indirectly to household food security, through the generation of employment and income from the sale and exchange of gathered and processed forest products. According to Aju and Uwalaka (2010), a wide range of forest products which rural people gather, produce and trade in order to derive income. These products include fuel wood, dyes, rattan, fibres, fruits, nuts, leaves, mushrooms, bamboo, medicines, gums, and forest game. In many countries, forestry – based activities are a major source of off-farm employment in rural areas. According to Kilby and Liedholm (1986), small forest based gathering and processing enterprises provide one of the largest source of non-agricultural employment and income to rural people at a time when rural households have to look to non-farm employment and income for a growing share of their total livelihood. For example in Sierra Leone and Jamaica, forest – based, small – scale enterprises account for more than one – fifth and one – third of off-farm respectively, of total employment in the small-scale enterprise sector (FAO, 1985b). Kaimowitz, (2007), reported that between 15 – 30% of non – farm rural enterprises involve wood – based activities. Forest – based activities also accounts for a significant proportion of household income in many rural areas in Nigeria. A survey carried out in Imo state for instance revealed that forest and farm tree products accounted for 43% of household income among its farming communities (Aju, 1999). This income helps to supplement income from agricultural production as well as provide a relief source in times of seasonal and emergency food and cash shortages:
How does erosion affect agriculture?
Erosion whether by wind or water leads to the loss of top soil where soil nutrients are concentrated thus leading to the disruption of agricultural production and degradation of the soil. This situation can however be halted by the provision of vegetation cover. Trees conserve the soil by protecting it from rain and wind, reducing soil erosion to a minimum. The canopy of trees shelters the ground from the impact of heavy downpours. The leaves drip water on the earth, giving it time to seep underground, bringing nourishment to animal and plant live beneath the tree.
How do trees help the soil?
But continued crop production on a piece of land leads to the depletion of soil nutrients which translate into poor yield. However, maintenance of forest cover on the land helps in restoring soil fertility hence resulting to increased yield of agricultural crops. Trees improve soils by many processes the most important of which are organic matter maintenance, nitrogen fixation, nutrient recycling and augmentation of nutrient uptake. The inclusion of trees in land use systems can augment the supply of plant material to the soil, as above ground litter and pruning deposits and more importantly by the shedding of fine roots. Many tropical species of trees belong to the family of leguminosae whose roots harbor bacteria that enable nitrogen to be fixed from the atmosphere. As many as 600 different tree species (not only leguminous ones) are known to be able to fix atmospheric nitrogen. In the humid tropics for example, it has been estimated that Leucaena leucocephala fixes an annual average of 500kg of nitrogen per hectare and Casuarina littoralis 218 kg (FAO 1985a). The greatest potential contribution of fertility maintenance lies in the capacity of root system from trees to recycle plant nutrients that would otherwise be lost in leaching. Due to their sheer size, trees have a major role to play in the cycle by which nutrients pass from the soil through plants and back to the soil. The slow removal of nutrients through leaching by rainwater is compensated by the steady release of minerals through the weathering of the underlying rock. Tree roots reach far down, bringing up water and nutrients from depths that non woody plants cannot reach. Also, their leaf fall can be used as a natural mulch to increase soil moisture as well as fertility.
Why is biodiversity important?
Maintenance of this diversity is an insurance and investment necessary to sustain and improve agriculture. This is because it is the sources of all our food. Moreover, cross breeding of domestic crops with wild varieties can improve yields and produce new strains better adapted to growing conditions or more resistant to diseases and pests. In the United States for instance, crossbreeding main crops with fresh genetic characteristics (taken either from the wild or from primitive cultivated varieties) has yielded an estimated 1% annual increase in productivity worth more than U.S $ 1 billion (WWF and IUCN, undated). Between 1930 and 1975 for example, yields per hectare of wheat in the United States rose by 115%, rice by 117%, maize by 320%, sugar cane by 141% and cotton by 18%. About half of this increase was attributed to genetic improvement and breeding (FAO et al undated).
What are the benefits of farming near a forest?
But groups of trees can also serve as a windbreak, providing a buffer for wind-sensitive crops. And beyond protecting those plants, less wind also makes it easier for bees to pollinate them.
What is the role of forests in the world?
Water that gets past their roots trickles down into aquifers, replenishing groundwater supplies that are important for drinking , sanitation and irrigation around the world.
How do forests clean out pollutants?
In addition to holding soil in place, forests may also use phytoremediation to clean out certain pollutants. Trees can either sequester the toxins away or degrade them to be less dangerous. This is a helpful skill, letting trees absorb sewage overflows, roadside spills or contaminated runoff.
What is the attraction of forests?
Our innate attraction to forests, part of a phenomenon known as biophilia, is still in the relatively early stages of scientific explanation. We know biophilia draws us to woods and other natural scenery, though, encouraging us to rejuvenate ourselves by exploring, wandering or just unwinding in the wilderness.
How does a forest’s root network affect the ecosystem?
A forest’s root network stabilizes huge amounts of soil, bracing the entire ecosystem’s foundation against erosion by wind or water. Not only does deforestation disrupt all that, but the ensuing soil erosion can trigger new, life-threatening problems like landslides and dust storms.
What are the benefits of forest?
Natural beauty may be the most obvious and yet least tangible benefit a forest offers. The abstract blend of shade, greenery, activity and tranquility can yield concrete advantages for people, however, like convincing us to appreciate and preserve old-growth forests for future generations.
How do forests affect weather?
Large forests can influence regional weather patterns and even create their own microclimates. The Amazon rainforest, for example, generates atmospheric conditions that not only promote regular rainfall there and in nearby farmland, but potentially as far away as the Great Plains of North America.
Why is agroforestry important?
Agroforestry assists in ensuring high level of nutrition and health due to an increase in quality of yield and its diversity. Tree plantation can also be used in the form of a fuel. Non-wood products and food that can either be sold or consumed, results in an additional level of food security.
How does agroforestry help the environment?
Prevents Soil Erosion: In dry areas, competition between crops and trees becomes a big issue. Agroforestry helps in increasing availability of water to soil.
How does agroforestry improve weather?
Agroforestry improves weather patterns and climatic conditions by changing microclimatic conditions like temperature, wind speed, and amount of water vapor in air that positively impacts the growth of crops and welfare of animals. By regulating quality of air, rain cycles, patterns, wind erosion, and water concentration, …
How does agroforestry affect economics?
Agroforestry economics enhances the assortment of production in the system. This, in turn, leads to the reduction of the chances of economic failure. Improved and maintainable productivity enhances the levels of agricultural income. Agroforestry also leads to higher income, and sustained employment that, in turn, …
How does agroforestry improve crop productivity?
It combines forestry as well as agriculture with an aim to enhance crop productivity and enhance soil fertility, biodiversity and lower soil erosion. With Agroforestry, the environmental function of crops, animals and trees enhances production of food and reduce the effect of cultivation on the environment.
How does agroforestry work?
Agroforestry, with the help of remarkable level of forest gardening and farming systems, result in efficient usage of nutrients in the soil. It tracks any buildup of soil toxicities, and lower soil salinization and acidification.
Why is agroforestry the best option?
Environmentalists recommend the adoption of this technology throughout the world. Due to the adverse impact of conventional farming methods, and to enhance food production to meet growing food requirements , agroforestry serves as the best option.