The project will undertake research to underpin national scaling up programmes for enhancing tree cover on farms by adopting an iterative co-learning paradigm within which we need to address the following key research questions:

Research Question 1: What mix of trees, crops and management practices will work for which sites and farmer circumstances across the target agroecologies?

Working with partners in the region, the World Agroforestry Centre has for the last 30 years developed and tested a number of agroforestry interventions aimed at sustainable intensification of farm production with key successes in particular contexts. What is now required is to generalize these results across the whole of the target agroecologies for

which they are appropriate. Addressing this research question requires development of an understanding of the barriers to, and opportunities for, adoption of farm trees in different contexts and socio-economic characterization that enables targeting of appropriate tree species and management options to sites and circumstances. The results will establish a baseline for subsequent monitoring and evaluation.

Research question 2: What are the impacts and trade-offs of integrating trees, crops and livestock in target farming systems

Smallholder farmers are confronted with multiple challenges that require they make well balanced decisions in the management of their small farms. Through this research question, quantitative and qualitative data on the performance of crops, tree species and management options used in scaling up will be collected, controlled experiments conducted, and simulation models of tree and crop yield across biophysical gradients developed. This will take into consideration the issue of water availability and partitioning by trees and crops in the different systems. The results will enable us to understand and model impact of agroforestry practices on crop productivity, water resources and nutrients, farmer decisions about adoption, adaptation and management of agroforestry practices and their impact on livelihoods.

Research question 3: What policy, socio-economic and institutional arrangements are required to enable the adoption of farm trees?

Large scale adoption of farm trees requires removing barriers to adoption and so will depend on understanding the policy, socio-economic and institutional factors required for farmers to integrate trees on their farms. While we know which factors affect these decisions in principle, it is important to understand what constellations of factors predominate in specific contexts and how they can best be addressed. The presence of the right policies and economic incentives will attract buy-in from farmers, and strong institutional arrangements at grassroots level with support from higher levels of governance will create a conducive environment within which farmers can be made aware of and adopt farm trees (see extension methods under the next research question). The results will provide answers on how to engage different stakeholders, including government officials, policy makers, private sector, rural institutions and other actors toenhance the adoption of farm trees by smallholder farmers.

Research question 4: What are the most effective extension methods, including seed and seedling supply systems, for promoting adoption of farm trees in the target agroecologies?

In addition to an appropriate enabling environment in terms of policies and institutions (which is the focus of research question 3), there is a need to use appropriate extension methods to get quality tree germplasm and information to farmers. There is strong interaction here with the availability of, and access to, markets and hence the appropriate

mix of public and private enterprise in developing supply systems and ensuring access to product markets. The paucity of appropriate methods and approaches for going to scale has been one of the major reasons for the limited adoption of most agroforestry technologies much as pilot testing has provided evidence on their effectiveness. To address this gap the research question will find out the most effective scaling up/out approaches and strategies to promote them. This will require multi-disciplinary skills and expertise and hence the need for co-opting multiple partners in the project.

Research question 5: How can the impact and trade-offs associated with adding trees to crop fields be quantified for different farming systems?

The incorporation of trees on farm will have impact on the performance of food grain crops as well as other knock-on impacts on rural livelihoods through system intensification. Impacts will vary with sites and farmer circumstances and we anticipate differential adoption and adaptation across the broad agroecologies targeted. Monitoring and evaluation will enable us not only to quantify impacts at field, farm and livelihood scales but also to understand where and why adoption is most and least successful. The regular performance data collection feeds back into design of appropriate options as well as quantification of impacts while periodical evaluations with partners offers a reflective opportunity in broader terms on overall project performance.