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Agroforestry
Combines Trees and Traditional Farm Enterprises
 Agroforestry
Combines Trees and Traditional Farm Enterprises
By
Terri McLean
LEXINGTON, Ky., (Sept. 6, 2006) – If Deborah Hill has her way,
Kentuckians will hear a lot more about agroforestry in the days
to come. It’s not that agroforestry is a new concept. On the
contrary, Hill says the practice of integrating tree crops with
more traditional agronomic crops or livestock has been around
“for millennia.”
Agroforestry is, however, becoming increasingly recognized as a
viable farming enterprise in Kentucky.
“It is one of those ideas whose time has come,” said Hill,
Extension forestry specialist at the University of Kentucky
College of Agriculture.
As Kentucky farmers face changes in the agricultural landscape,
agroforestry enables them to diversify their income sources. At
the same time, it protects the valuable natural resources upon
which they are so dependent. And the more economically diverse
and environmentally sound a farming operation is, the more
sustainable it is, Hill said.
“It’s so connected with sustainability that I think it’s a
really important thing for us to do more of,” she said.
Put simply, agroforestry is an intensive land management system
that combines long-term tree crops with annual agronomic crops
and/or livestock in a farm operation. It has been practiced in
tropical areas of the world for centuries, but only in the past
20 years has it become an accepted practice in temperate regions
of the world.
“For farmers, this is very definitely thinking outside the box.
It is not the box,” Hill said.
There are five agroforestry techniques that have been
successfully incorporated into the traditional agricultural
systems of the United States. They are alley cropping, forest
farming, silvopasture, riparian buffer strips and windbreaks.
Each is designed to provide a marketable commodity, such as nuts
and firewood, as well as provide less tangible benefits, such as
erosion control and shade for livestock.
Two of the agroforestry techniques – forest farming and riparian
buffer strips – are especially applicable in Kentucky. A third,
silvopasture, has limited use but mostly in the western part of
the state, Hill said.
Forest farming probably is the most widely used agroforestry
practice in the state, said Hill, who has been working in that
field for several years. It varies from the other four
techniques because farmers “manipulate” existing wooded areas to
produce short-term or annual crops. With the others, trees must
be introduced into a pasture or large open area for the same
purpose.
“When you’re talking about forest management, most people think
in terms of timber, which is a very long-term way of producing
income from the land,” Hill said. “When you’re talking about
forest farming, you’re talking about a variety of things that
can be done either on an annual basis or certainly a much more
short-term basis than timber management.”
 Those
include bee products, exotic mushrooms, fuel wood, fence posts,
and medicinal plants. “And maple syrup – most people don’t
realize you can, in fact, produce maple syrup from any kind of
maple tree. We certainly have a variety of them that grow in
Kentucky,” Hill said.
In addition, Hill said forest farming is the one agroforestry
technique in which a producer could expect to see a marketable
product within a year or two. It may, however, require “more
kinds of expertise” than the others.
Riparian buffer strips, also called stream management areas, are
trees, shrubs and grasses planted near streams and rivers that
act as “living filters.” They can protect the water from surface
runoff, control erosion and provide wildlife habitat. Many
farmers have developed buffer strips as a result of the Kentucky
Agriculture Water Quality Act of 1994. However, buffer strips
can be managed to provide economic as well as environmental
benefits.
“You could put walnut (trees) down next to the stream, which is
going to give you nuts. You could probably do some kind of
orchard trees on the farthest outside edge of the trees. …
Choices for the shrub layer could be something croppable like
red osier dogwood or corkscrew willow, because when you cut them
off they will re-sprout,” Hill said.
The key to generating income from a buffer strip – or any
agroforestry enterprise, for that matter – is to “choose your
weapon,” she added. It is important to choose species that are
compatible with each other and with other crops and livestock
but also species that can generate income from a short-term or
annual product.
Silvopasture, though more suitable to the western Kentucky
landscape, is also a potential agroforestry option for many of
the state’s farmers, Hill said. It is the combination of trees,
forage and livestock in a single integrated operation.
Ideally, the trees in a silvopasture operation are planted near
existing fence lines, rather than in the middle of a pasture.
They should be species that are marketable, whether for their
nuts, fruit or wood products. At the same time, however, the
trees can be used to provide shade for livestock and windbreaks
for agronomic crops.
“It’s really one of the most diverse techniques,” Hill said.
“Given the fact that we have a huge cattle population, maybe
silvopasture will take off.”
The other two agroforestry techniques, alley cropping and
windbreaks, have fewer applications in Kentucky. Alley cropping
involves planting single or double rows of long-term trees with
wide alleys between them. An agronomic crop, such as soybeans or
corn, is then planted in the alleys. Windbreaks are rows of
trees that provide agronomic crops and/or livestock with
protection from wind and soil erosion.
Although agroforestry has garnered much interest throughout the
United States, Hill admits that, for many farmers, it is a
different way of approaching land management.
“You have generations of farmers who think that putting trees in
their pastures or planting trees for any purpose is the worst
thing in the world to do because they’ve been trying to get rid
of trees ever since they bought their land,” she said. “So it’s
one of those things we call paradigm shifts. You have to think
about it differently.”
Hill also suggests that agroforestry is more suitable for small,
family farms rather than agribusinesses. But in Kentucky, a
state dominated by small-scale farming, that shouldn’t be a
roadblock to further agroforestry development, she said.
“My goal is to see more agroforestry implemented in the state to
help farmers stay on their farms because they’re making their
whole operations more economically viable." |
Contact: Deborah Hill, 859-257-7610 |
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