Key agroforestry research challenges in tropical Asia

The problems of slash-and-burn agriculture are complex phenomena because they involve people, land hunger and poverty on one side and preservation of natural resources on the other side. The solutions cannot be simple and very likely have to be site specific since the human environment and socio-cultural systems play a central role. However, the global phenomena need to be characterized in such a way that a coherent diagnosis may be carried out based on common methodologies. The ASB Project is one of many initiatives aimed at reducing deforestation caused by unsustainable slash-and-burn agriculture, by providing technical alternatives and policy options that eliminate the need to clear additional forest land and by encouraging to reclaim the degraded and abandoned lands. This is a worldwide research and development project based on intensive partnership between national and international agencies. ASB-lndonesia, which is hosted by the Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (AARD), has selected tour sites in the Sumatra benchmark area, i.e Air Dingin, Sitiung, lšungo, Tebo and North Lampung representing various ecological and soda-economic conditions. The studies will be focused on soil organic matter dynamics and comparison of greenhouse gas emissions at various land use systems, tree and crop productivity, farmer decision making and the effectiveness of the existing policies in promoting sustainable use of natural resources. The workshop which is reported here, was the first activity within ASB-lndonesia which attempts to integrate the potential collaborators/researchers involved in the project before they are actually going to characterize the respective field sites. Having done that, it is expected that they will generate ideas on how to tackle the problems they will encounter in the field.

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