Agro-forests: incorporating a forest vision in agroforestry

Though extensively practiced throughout the tropics by indigenous fanners,agroforestry as a science-based technology was first introduced through forestry, not agriculture.It developed in the mid-19th century, when professional foresters stroveto improve the economie efficiency plantation establishment through the technology that later became known asthe"taungya system" (King1987). This first development of modem agroforestry was not concerned with farmers,nor wast considered a system that could improve global land utilization patterns·in forest areas. In the early1970s,when globalconcerns for the degradation offorested lands increased, agroforestry was reassessed as a system of land management applicable to,and with great potential for,both farmlands and forests.This new brandof agroforestry was primarily targeted atimproving the conditions of the rural poor.lt did not fundamentally change perceptions about farmersand farming in forestry sciences, but it did contribute to a broader vision of agricultural science sin general.Suddenly, trees in agricultural landscapes,that had.remained quite invisible to agronomists,became valued as important elementsof the agricultural system itself. But how far did this reassessment of trees in agriculture translate into a better integration of forestry and agriculture

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