Profitable agroforestry innovations for Eastern Africa: experience from 10 agroclimatic zones of Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda

Agroforestry has immense potential to help improve livelihoods of the rural poor, and lots of agroforestry innovations exist. Many are long-term research results and many more are local experiences that have been de- veloped for many years in Africa and South Asia. Unfortunately, their spread in sub-Saharan Africa has not been satisfactory. Consequently, the potential of agroforestry has not been effectively tapped in this region. One basic truth here is the fact is that most of the innovations are not documented for development facilitators and individual farmers to use. The little documentation that has been made in certain countries or in- stitutions is site and country specifi c with no mechanism for associating fi ndings to similar areas in another country or another place in the same country. It is very diffi cult therefore to visualize the utility of the innovation outside its origin. For instance, an important agroforestry innovation that might have made a difference in one country could not be easily tried in another country or another site in the same country. The problem has not been simply upscaling. Also lacking has been the possibility of cross-ferti- lizing agroforestry knowledge and expertise, and harvesting professional critiques among scientists and practitioners of different countries. This study has been designed in view of these inherent problems of trans- ferring knowledge and experience. Commonalities of agroclimatic zone be- tween countries and areas within countries were analysed and mapped. Differences and similarities in ecoregions inform a lot about the existence or absence of different trees and shrubs and of cereals. The study countries were thus partitioned into similar ecoregions by using broad but common- ly understood parameters—altitude and rainfall. Similar agroclimatic zones were identifi ed and mapped as shown in fi gure 1.1. Then study methodol- ogy and terms of reference for the study were developed. The following 11 issues were indicated as major considerations in studying and documenting each of the profi table agroforestry innovations

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