The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) joined forces in 2019, leveraging a combined 65 years’ experience in research on the role of forests and trees in solving critical global challenges.
Agroforestry training in India is meeting global demand for expertise to face the climate emergency and speed adaptation and mitigation.
Twenty-six mid-level policymakers from Africa and Asia — Bangladesh, Botswana, Cambodia, Malawi, Myanmar, Nepal, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Uganda — were recently trained in agroforestry policy, research, innovation and development in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, India as part of the Feed the Future: India Triangular Training, a joint program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE).
‘You are all becoming ambassadors of agroforestry for your countries,’ said Mustapha El Hamzaoui, director, Food Security, USAID India to the trainees. ‘Agroforestry is the ideal approach to secure a sustainable future for humankind.’
The first phase of the training was conducted at mid-October 2019 at the World Agroforestry (ICRAF) office in Delhi, focusing on policy, innovations and development.
‘This training is a tribute to thriving South–South partnerships,’ said Javed Rizvi, director of World Agroforestry (ICRAF) South Asia, which led the training. ‘I expect that it will further enhance the efforts of the Government of India to promote South–South Cooperation with partner countries.’
The second, more practical phase, was held at the Central Agroforestry Research Institute (CAFRI) in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, introducing the trainees to ‘agroforestry in action’ sites in three major agro-ecologies in northern, central and southern India. CAFRI is the only major institute in Asia fully dedicated to research in agroforestry, operating under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).
‘Agroforestry is about producing the maximum yield with fewer inputs than other techniques and models,’ said Suresh Kumar Chaudhary, assistant director-general, Natural Resource Management at ICAR. ‘We at ICAR value our partnership with ICRAF through which novel approaches in both cutting-edge science and transfer of technology are disseminated, shared and implemented.’
For the final phase, which focused on the impact of agroforestry, the trainees visited the Forest College and Research Institute (FCRI) in Mettupalayam, part of the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University. It is the first institute in India to establish an Agroforestry Business Incubator that embraces a consortium of farmers, industry representatives and scientists. They have a created a successful protocol for linking large and small businesses, for example, through establishing nurseries for the sale of new clones developed by the institute. In Mettupalayam, the trainees also visited timber-based industries and learned about agroforestry value-chains using the Business Incubator approach.
The training curriculum was designed by ICRAF in consultation with the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, CAFRI and FCRI. It comprised 26 classroom lectures, eight case studies and field visits. The lectures spanned research and development; policies; agroforestry practices for security of livelihoods, nutrition and the environment; impact; and commercial and value-chain aspects.
‘From this program, we obtained a lot of knowledge. I now have many ideas about how to relate agroforestry to education courses in my country,’ said Soe Soe Win, associate professor, Yezin Agricultural University, Myanmar.
Lecturers were senior scientists from ICRAF and the ICAR, CAFRI, Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture and FCRI as well as senior policymakers from the National Rainfed Agriculture Authority, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Noyal Thomas, inspector-general of Forests at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, emphasized the role of forest policies in promotion of forest and tree cover in India. Scientists shared their experience and research on dryland ecology and climate-smart agriculture and innovative technologies, such as mid-infrared spectroscopy and geo-informatics to map agroforestry and smartphone applications to provide information to and from farmers and scientists to help farmers and governments make better decisions about land use.
Visiting lecturer Anja Gassner from ICRAF Philippines provided an overview of global policies and of the gaps in research that weakened widespread adoption of agroforestry.
‘Legislation is particularly important for mainstreaming agroforestry across government sectors,’ she said. ‘It’s also essential to link agroforestry to the Sustainable Development Goals to capture the full range of benefits and measure their impact for mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change.’
An important part of the training was the ‘back to work plans’ that trainees had to prepare for actual deployment when they returned to their home countries. Many of the plans focused on developing agroforestry systems based on location-specific germplasm, on agroforestry for enhancing the income of farmers and other stakeholders, on value addition and on establishing agroforestry-based value chains. They also identified and prioritized policy interventions.
World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific and development excellence that harnesses the benefits of trees for people and the environment. Knowledge produced by ICRAF enables governments, development agencies and farmers to utilize the power of trees to make farming and livelihoods more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable at multiple scales. ICRAF is one of the 15 members of the CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. We thank all donors who support research in development through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund.