Introduction

Social Forestry
‘Social Forestry’ was first used by Mr. Westoby in Ninth Commonwealth Forestry Congress
in 1968 at Delhi. As per his definition SF is a forestry which aims at continuously providing
protection and recreation benefits for the community. SF means the management and protection
of forests and afforestation on barren lands with the purpose of helping in the environmental,
social and rural development.
CATEGORIES OF SOCIAL FORESTRY SCHEME
SF scheme can be categorized into following groups:
Farm forestry: Individual farmers are being encouraged to plant trees on their own farmland to
meet the domestic needs of the family.
Community forestry: In this scheme trees are planted on community land.
Extension forestry: Planting of trees on the sides of roads, canals and railways, along with
planting on wastelands.
Agro forestry: Means practice of agriculture and forestry on the same piece of land.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOCIAL FORESTRY AND AGROFORESTRY
Social forestry is defined as “Forestry outside the conventional forests which primarily aim at
providing continuous flow of goods and services for the benefit of people.
Social Forestry-Social forestry means the management and protection of forests and
afforestation on barren lands with the purpose of helping in the environmental, social and rural
development.
Agro Forestry-Agroforestry is an integrated approach of using the interactive benefits from
combining trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock. It combines agricultural and forestry
technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, and sustainable land-use
systems.
What is Agroforestry?
Agroforestry combines agriculture and forestry technologies to create more integrated, diverse,
productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems.
Major types of agroforestry systems in the tropics include:
Under Humid Lowlands-
Shifting cultivation
Taungya
Riparian Forest Buffers
 Alley Cropping- Intercropping systems
Plantation-crop combinations
Home Gardening or Multilayer tree gardens
Under Semiarid Lowlands-
Silvopastoral systems
Windbreaks and shelterbelts
Multipurpose trees for fuel and fodder
Mutlipurpose trees on farmlands
Under Highlands-
Soil conservation hedges
Silvopastoral combinations
Plantation-crop combinations
Forest Farming and Specialized Forest Products
Agroforestry is a "social forestry" - its purpose is sustainable development. Practices are
focused on meeting the economic, environmental and social needs of people on their private
lands.
At the farm level, agroforestry is a set of practices that provide strong economic and
conservation incentives for landowner adoption.
Incorporated into watersheds and landscapes, agroforestry practices help to attain
community/society goals for more diverse, healthy and sustainable land-use systems.
Where does Agroforestry apply?
Agroforestry applies to private agricultural and forest lands and communities. These are highly
disturbed, human-dominated land-use systems.
Targets include highly-erodible, flood-prone, economically marginal and environmentally
sensitive lands.
The typical situation is agricultural, where trees are added to create desired benefits. Our goal
is to restore essential processes needed for ecosystem health and sustainability, rather than to
restore natural ecosystems.
Agroforestry provides strong incentives for adoption of conservation practices and alternative
land uses, and supports a collaborative watershed analysis approach to management of
landscapes containing mixed ownerships, vegetation types and land uses.
Agroforestry is a farming system that integrates crops and/or livestock with trees and shrubs.
The resulting biological interactions provide multiple benefits, including diversified income
sources, increased biological production, better water quality, and improved habitat for both
humans and wildlife. Farmers adopt agroforestry practices for two reasons. They want to
increase their economic stability and they want to improve the management of natural resources
under their care.
A traditional tree farm or nut plantation managed as a single-purpose monocrop is not an
agroforestry system. Neither is a woodlot when it’s managed for wood products only.
Agroforestry involves combining a tree planting with another enterprise — such as grazing
animals or producing mushrooms — or managing a woodlot for a diversity of special forest
products. For example, an agroforestry system might produce firewood, biomass feedstocks,
pinestraw mulch, fodder for grazing animals, and other traditional forestry products. At the
same time, the trees are sheltering livestock from wind or sun, providing wildlife habitat,
controlling soil erosion, and — in the case of most leguminous species — fixing nitrogen to
improve soil fertility.
Agroforestry Practices
1. Alleycropping
Alleycropping involves growing crops (grains, forages, vegetables, etc.) between trees planted
in rows. The spacing between the rows is designed to accommodate the mature size of the trees
while leaving room for the planned alley crops. When sun-loving plants like corn or some herbs
will be alleycropped, the alleyways need to be wide enough to let in plenty of light even when
the trees have matured.
Alternatively, the cropping sequence can be planned to change as the trees’ growth decreases
the available light. For example, soybeans or corn could be grown when the trees are very
small; then, as the tree canopy closes, forages could be harvested for hay; finally, when the
trees are fully grown and the ground is more shaded, grazing livestock or shade-tolerant crops
like mushrooms or ornamental ferns could occupy the alleyways.
Like all integrated systems, alleycropping requires skillful management and careful planning.
Both the crop and the trees have requirements that sometimes necessitate trade-offs between
them. The design must allow sufficient room for the equipment needed to service each
enterprise. If either crop requires chemical herbicides or insecticides, the other must be tolerant
of these treatments.
In most alleycropping systems, trees are planted in straight rows, sometimes with no regard for
slope or contour. There are, however, advantages to planting the trees in curves or on the
contour. These include the slowing of surface-water movement and the reduction of soil
erosion. The trees can be planted in single rows or in blocks of multiple rows between alleys.
The first row in a block is planted on the contour line; subsequent rows are planted below the
original line according to the slope of the land. The final row of trees in one block is planted
parallel to the contour line on which the next block of trees will begin. The width of the tree
blocks varies, but the cropping alleyways between them have parallel edges. This design avoids
creating point rows within the alleys, thus simplifying crop equipment maneuvers. The width
of the alleys is determined by the size of this equipment.
If planting on the contour is impractical, another option is to plant trees in curved zigzags so
that water running downhill is captured or at least slowed.
Islands of trees can offer some of the same advantages if they don’t interfere with cropping
operations.
In large plantings, fast-growing hardwoods or pines are interplanted as trainers to ensure that
the crop trees develop upright, unbranched trunks.
Alternatively, the crop trees can be planted close together in the rows, to be thinned and pruned
several times as they grow. Although these early harvested trees may have little market value,
their presence during the first years of growth has increased the main crop’s value. The goal is
to produce long, straight saw logs with few lower branches, for maximum profit at final harvest.
Whatever the planting design, trees on the outside edge of a group will grow more side
branches, or even a lopsided trunk, resulting in lower value saw logs.
2. Silvopasture
Tree and pasture combinations are called silvopastoral agroforestry. Hardwoods (sometimes
nut trees) and/or pines are planted in single or multiple rows, and livestock graze between them.
Although both the trees and the livestock must be managed for production, some systems
emphasize one over the other.
3. Windbreaks or Shelterbelts
Trees are planted in single or multiple rows along the edge of a field to reduce wind effects on
crops or livestock.
Windbreaks have been shown to reduce wind impact over a horizontal distance equalling at
least ten times the height of the trees.
Wind and water erosion are reduced, creating a moist, more favorable microclimate for the
crop. In the winter the windbreak traps snow, and any winter crops or livestock are protected
from chilling winds. Beneficial insects find permanent habitat in windbreaks, enhancing crop
protection.
Although the trees compete for available water along the edges between the windbreak and the
crop rows, potentially reducing crop yield near the windbreak, the net effect on productivity is
positive. In fact, even on land that’s well suited for high-value crops, a windbreak can increase
the crop yield of the entire downwind field by as much as 20%, even when the windbreak area
is included in the acreage total.
Windbreaks can be designed specifically for sheltering livestock. Studies have shown the
economic advantages of providing protection from windchill, a major stress on animals that
live outside in the winter. Reduced feed bills, increases in milk production, and improved
calving success have resulted from the use of windbreaks.
Besides providing protection to crops and livestock, windbreaks offer other advantages. They
benefit wildlife, especially by serving as continuous corridors along which animals can safely
move.
Farmers can even develop windbreaks into additional profit centers for the farm — hunting
leases, selective timber harvests, firewood sales, and special forest products are some of the
possibilities.
Any tree species can be used in a windbreak. However, deciduous species, even in multiple
rows, will lose effectiveness when they lose their leaves. For year-round use, some of the
species selected should be evergreen. Fast-growing trees should be included; it’s best to plant
deep-rooted, non-competitive species along the edges. Regular deep chisel-plowing along the
edges will keep roots from spreading into the crop rows. If some of the trees are harvested
periodically, replacements can be planted, establishing a long-term rotation within the
windbreak.
4. Riparian Buffer Strips
Trees, grasses, and/or shrubs planted in areas along streams or rivers are called riparian buffers
or filter strips. These plantings are designed to catch soil, excess nutrients, and chemical
pesticides moving over the land’s surface before they enter waterways. Such plantings also
physically stabilize streambanks. On cropland that is tiled to improve drainage, polluted water
can flow directly into streams; constructed wetlands installed in the buffers can capture and
clean this drainage water before it enters the stream.
5. Forest Farming and Special Forest Products
When a natural forested area is managed for both wood products and an additional enterprise,
it becomes an agroforestry system. For help with the management of timber, county Extension
agents can refer farmers to Extension forestry specialists. These specialists are qualified to give
advice on thinning, pruning, and harvesting practices, as well as on marketing options. They
may or may not be able to visit the farm for on-site consultation.
Besides producing saw timber and pulpwood, woodlands can generate income from many other
products. Established forests offer many non-timber “special forest products” that contribute
to cash flow without requiring the one-time harvest of old trees.
6. Home gardens
This system is found extensively in high rainfall areas in tropical South and South east Asia.
This practice finds expression in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu with humid tropical
climates where coconut is the main crop. Many species of trees, bushes, vegetables and other
herbaceous plants are grown in dense and in random or spatial and temporal arrangements.
Most home gardens also support a variety of animals. Fodder grass and legumes are also grown
to meet the fodder requirement of cattle. In India, every homestead has around 0.20 to 0.50 ha
land for personal production. Home gardens represent land use systems involving deliberate
management of multipurpose trees and shrubs in intimate association with annual and perennial
agricultural crops and livestock within the compounds of individual houses. The whole tree-
crop- animal units are being intensively managed by family labour. Home gardens can also be
called as Multitier system or Multitier cropping.
Home gardens are highly productive, sustainable and very practicable. Food production is
primary function of most home gardens.
Structure of Home Gardens:
Home gardens are characterized by high species diversity and usually 3-4 vertical canopy
strata. The layered configuration and compatible species admixture are the most conspicuous
characteristics of all home gardens. Generally, all home gardens consist of an herbaceous layer
near the ground, a tree layer at the upper levels and an intermediate layer. The lower layer can
be partitioned into two, the lowermost being at less than 1.0m in height, dominated by different
vegetables and the second layer of 1.0 -3.0/m height comprising food crops such as banana,
papaya and so on. The upper tree layer can also be divided into two, consisting of emergent,
full grown timber and fruit trees occupying the upper most layer of 25m height and medium
size trees of 10-20m occupying the next lower layer. The intermediate layer of 5- 10m height
is dominated by various fruit trees.
Choice of species:
a) Woody species: Anacardium occidentale, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Citrus spp, Psiduim
guajava, Mangifera indica, Azadirachta indica, Cocus nucifera,
b) Herbaceous species: Bhendi, Onion, cabbage, Pumpkin, Sweet potato, Banana, Beans, etc.
BENEFITS OF AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM
A) Environmental benefits
i) Reduction of pressure on natural forests.
ii More efficient recycling of nutrients by deep rooted trees on the site
iii) Better protection of ecological systems
iv) Reduction of surface run-off, nutrient leaching and soil erosion through impeding effect of
tree roots and stems on these processes
v) Improvement of microclimate, such as lowering of soil surface temperature and reduction
of evaporation of soil moisture through a combination of mulching and shading
vi) Increment in soil nutrients through addition and decomposition of litterfall.
vii) Improvement of soil structure through the constant addition of organic matter from
decomposed litter.
B) Economic benefits
i) Increment in an output of food, fuel wood, fodder, fertiliser and timber;
ii) Reduction in incidence of total crop failure, which is common to single cropping or
monoculture systems
iii) Increase in levels of farm income due to improved and sustained productivity
C) Social benefits
i) Improvement in rural living standards from sustained employ ment and higher income
ii) Improvement in nutrition and health due to increased quality and diversity of food outputs
iii) Stabilization and improvement of communities through elimination of the need to shift sites
of farm activities.