The objectives and procedures of land evaluation and the nature of the results obtained are out-lined. The present state of development of evalua-tion methodology is reviewed for kinds of land use related to agroforestry: crop production, forestry and livestock production. The stages in the develop-ment of a methodology of land evaluation for agro-forestry are described, namely: an environmental data base, formulation of appropriate agroforestry land utilization types, determination of land use require-ments, construction of biophysical models, assessment of environmental impact and sustainability, method for comparison between agroforestry and non-agro-forestry land utilization types, and testing through case studies. Land evaluation draws upon data from, and interacts with, many other ICRAF projects in agroforestry research. The principal outputs from a land evaluation research programme will be: (i) a systematic assessment of the environmental suit-abilities of specified agroforestry land utilization types; (ii) a method for comparison of the suit-ability, including environmental, economic and social aspects, of land utilization types, both agroforestry and non-agroforestry, on different land units. The results will permit quantitative estimates of the potential contribution of agroforestry to sustainable production over specified areas of land.
Publication year
1984
Authors
Language
English
Keywords
agroforestry, crop production, environmental impact, land evaluation, land use
