In 2014, India became the first country in the world to adopt a national agroforestry policy. The policy was designed to resolve bottlenecks with other policies on agriculture, forestry, water and environment, recognizing that land use by its very nature must be integrative. Agroforestry is the practice and science of the interface and interactions between agriculture and forestry, involving farmers, livestock, trees and forests at multiple scales. Agroforestry systems have been shown to provide many ecosystem services, helping to reverse environmental damage, while simultaneously improving farmers’ livelihoods.

To maximise agroforestry’s many benefits, both knowledge of trees (Forestry) and knowledge of crops and livestock production (Agriculture), need to be combined, a daunting challenge for most governments, except India’s. The way one of the most densely populated and complex nations on Earth managed to do it is an inspiration to countries globally.

World Agroforestry (ICRAF) South Asia Regional Program worked as a technical partner with the national lead institutions like, the National Advisory Council, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and its Department of Agriculture Cooperation, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and the Central Agroforestry Research Institute — in both the development and implementation of the national agroforestry policy.

ICRAF’s roles have been as advisor to the Government as a member of the inter-ministerial committee charged with oversight of the policy; and to support capacity building within India and through South–South cooperation; enhancing the knowledge sphere and outreach; and as a catalyst in regional policy initiatives.

As described in an earlier working paper, in the run up to the policy ICRAF’s South Asia Program had initiated brainstorming with Government policymakers, think tanks, researchers and others on the requirements of such a policy. The process engaged with various types of knowledge and skills to facilitate the changes needed to create a national policy that would affect hundreds of thousands — possibly millions — of people’s lives.

The policy has already been effective in upgrading the national research and development institution, bringing agroforestry into the Corporate Social Responsibility Act, establishing the National Sub-Mission on Agroforestry with an allocation of more than $ 140 million to promote adoption and freeing farm-grown tree species from counterproductive felling and transit regulations in 25 states. The emergence of a more complete, equitable and self-sustaining value chain is unfolding with relaxation of the timber industry. These changes are reflected in an overall increase of about 2% in tree cover, especially trees outside forests. An estimated 70% of India’s timber requirement (about 74.51 million m³ annually) is currently sourced from trees outside forests, including the agroforestry systems.

The process itself of the policy’s development has been recognized as a valuable lesson and is being used in neighbouring countries in South Asia.

South–South cooperation

In order to strengthen South–South cooperation and increase awareness of the importance of national agroforestry policies and/or strategies, the South Asia Program and partners organized regional training and knowledge exchanges.

For example, in October 2015, a regional consultation — Agroforestry: A Way Forward — was carried out in partnership with the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and others. Participants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Viet Nam helped develop future roadmaps for enhanced adoption of agroforestry systems, resulting in the New Delhi Action Plan.

During October 2019, the South Asia Program with its partners trained 26 mid-level policymakers from Bangladesh, Botswana, Cambodia, Malawi, Myanmar, Nepal, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Uganda in agroforestry policy, research, innovation and development. Partial funding was provided through the Feed the Future: India Triangular Training, a joint program of the United States Agency for International Development and the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Government of India.

Enhancing the knowledge sphere and outreach

We recognized that the lack of easy access to credible knowledge about scientifically proven agroforestry systems was a big bottleneck for farmers and others wanting to adopt agroforestry, even though in recent years research in agroforestry had developed substantially in India, resulting in generation of massive amounts of information about tree species, systems and successful agroforestry models.

In a joint effort to address the lack of availability and access, the South Asia Program, Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Central Agroforestry Research Institute spearheaded documentation through a series of publications.

The first book, Promising agroforestry tree species in India, was released in 2018; the second, Successful agroforestry models for different agro-ecological regions in India, in 2019. The third book, Guidelines to produce quality planting material of agroforestry species, was also released in 2019. A fourth, Mapping agroforestry and trees outside forest, was launched on 4 May 2020.

Catalytic role beyond South Asia

While working with the Government on the implementation of the policy and the Sub-Mission on Agroforestry, the South Asia Program ignited interest from the South and Southeast Asian regions for country and region-specific agroforestry policies.

Neighbouring Nepal in South Asia was the second nation in the world to establish a national agroforestry policy, again, with ICRAF’s technical assistance. We were the only non-governmental partner to the Government of Nepal.

We are also working with the eight-member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and supporting ICRAF Southeast Asia Program’s work with the Association of South-East Asian Nations and, specifically, Viet Nam. Partly inspired by the Indian national policy’s successes, ASEAN ministers of agriculture and forestry adopted the ASEAN Guidelines for Agroforestry Development in 2018. The adoption led to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations establishing a technical cooperation programme with ASEAN to implement the Guidelines, focusing on three pilot countries: Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar. ICRAF is the main technical partner in the programme.

We are very proud to have played a part in this chain of impact that is rippling across Asia and beyond, as far away as Belize and Fiji. We sincerely hope that it will spread throughout the world.