Soil and water conservation benefits of agroforestry

Abstract Soil erosion is a major form of land degradation which poses a major threat to agriculture production, environmental and livelihood security. The problem is further being aggravated by water scarcity and  increase in concentration of greenhouse gases which is leading to climate change, a major threat to food production. Therefore, there is immediate need to develop strategies and technologies for soil and water conservation. In this context, agroforestry can play a very important role for achieving higher production while conserving soil and water resources efficiently. Large canopy and network of roots in agroforestry trees are very useful in checking the soil erosion.  Better microclimate under trees is helpful in checking evaporation losses, transpiration and water conservation. Agroforestry practices like improved fallows, homegardens, alley cropping, silvipastoral system, bioengineering structures, are useful for soil and water conservation. During last 2-3 decades, new agroforestry technologies have been developed which not only provide sustainable production but are also effective in conserving the resources efficiently. The adoption of these technologies however, is not very encouraging. To make these technologies framers friendly, there is urgent need to quantify the soil and water conservation benefits into monitory terms and include them in policy programmes so that the so that the benefits are passed to the stakeholders adopting these technologies.