Farm-Forestry, Smallholder Farms and Policy Support - The Way Ahead

Farm forestry, interchangeably used for the term agroforestry, encompasses growing trees and/or shrubs on farms, mainly to support agricultural production and supplement farm income on smallholder farms. This, as a bonus, also provides for ecosystem services viz., protection of soil and water resources, biodiversity enhancement, carbon sequestration, and improvement in landscape values to the farm holding. In Indian context, this encompasses raising trees mainly on bunds or field boundaries on small holdings or sometimes intercropped in an agroforestry type configuration, if holding size is bigger. The techno-economic viability of this system has been extensively assessed and wide adoption, therefore, warrants a conducive policy support at local and community level. Governments have framed enabling policies towards this goal; however, desired outcome is still awaited. This study attempts to map out the present development and suggest the measures required at local and community level to make the government policies more fruitful. Policies framed at macro level need recalibration to suit local and community specific requirements in the changing climatic conditions for wider adoption and sustenance.