Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces numerous challenges, including climate change, land degradation and high poverty levels, which necessitate innovative solutions. Agroforestry, an ancient land practice, has gained modern relevance as a nature-based solution to meeting the ecosystems and livelihoods demands. The practice offers multiple ecosystem goods and services by integrating trees with crop and pasture lands in different spatial and temporal arrangements. This journal presents a systematic review of agroforestry technologies in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting their dynamics, characteristics and potential benefits.

The Urgency for Agroforestry: As the region's dominant economic activity, SSA's agriculture is significantly affected by decreasing land fertility, crop failure, pests and disease, among other climatic and non-climatic challenges, calling for cross-cutting approaches that boosts livelihoods and ecosystem services resilience. With its historical roots dating back to the Middle Ages, agroforestry has evolved into a deliberate integration of trees into agricultural and pastoral lands, yielding multiple benefits. Over time, Agroforestry has transformed from simple practices to complex systems that mimic natural forests, covering vast areas globally. Among the critical factors for a successful agroforestry system include identifying the suitable trees according to the existing environmental, socio-cultural, and economic factors and farmer preferences. 

Balancing Ecosystem Services and Livelihoods: Successful agroforestry lies in achieving a balance between the ecosystems and livelihood needs. By effectively designing agroforestry technologies, it is possible to enhance biodiversity conservation, regulate water, soil, and air quality, control pests and diseases, generate income, stabilize economies, and ensure food security and diversity in livelihoods. However, tradeoffs such as increased deforestation rates, competition between trees and crops, and potential food insecurity must be addressed to optimize the benefits.

Reviewing Agroforestry Studies in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review was conducted to gain insights into the trends and patterns of agroforestry in SSA. Eighty-six studies were analyzed, encompassing variables such as dominant agroforestry technologies, production systems, study types, and ecosystem services generated. Some of the dominant agroforestry systems include cocoa agroforestry, improved tree fallows, fruit orchards, coffee agroforestry, and silvopasture systems. Journal articles constitute the dominant study type, primarily scientific in nature, with countries such as Ethiopia, Cameroon and Kenya recording the highest number of studies. The provisioning service of income generation and the regulatory service of greenhouse gas emission reduction were identified as key benefits, along with soil fertility management as a vital support service. Our previously related studies have also indicated that converting 25% of the deforested areas could help 80% of the non-annex countries in meeting their unconditional Nationally Determined Contributions commitments towards global climate objectives.

Overcoming Barriers and Promoting Adoption: The review also sheds light on barriers to agroforestry adoption, including insecure land and tree tenure systems, price and market instability of related goods, livestock and transhumance, as well as inadequate research development. Creating a conducive institutional and policy environment is crucial to promoting increased agroforestry technology adoption. Additionally, developing business support services, value chains and sustainable markets for agroforestry-related goods and services can incentivize adoption. Addressing these barriers and promoting adoption can achieve the ecosystems-livelihood balance with minimal tradeoffs.

‘Creating a conducive institutional and policy environment is crucial to promoting increased agroforestry technology adoption. Additionally, developing business support services, value chains and sustainable markets for agroforestry-related goods and services can incentivize adoption. Addressing these barriers and promoting adoption can achieve the ecosystems-livelihood balance with minimal tradeoffs’, Kennedy Muthee, Research Associate CIFOR-ICRAF, and the study lead.

“Agroforestry presents a promising solution for restoring ecosystems and improving rural livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. This systematic review highlights the different phases of agroforestry, from traditional practices to research and policy mainstreaming. While the review provides valuable insights, conducting more country-specific studies to better understand agroforestry's social, environmental, and economic dynamics in the region is Important.” – Dr Peter Minang – Director for Africa: CIFOR-ICRAF

“Agroforestry's success depends on its contextual application, considering factors such as awareness, available resources, sociocultural aspects, desired outcomes, and biophysical conditions. By embracing agroforestry and addressing its challenges, sub-Saharan Africa can pave the way for sustainable development and resilience in the face of multiple global challenges.” – Priscilla Wainaina – Scientist: CIFOR-ICRAF

The study concludes by exploring key factors towards development of successful agroforestry systems, including contextualizing the systems to meet the environmental, social-cultural and economic conditions, increased awareness and capacity development of small-scale holder farmers to promote adoption, and development of business advisory and extension services to improve production and marketing of related agroforestry goods and services.

Link to the article:

Kennedy Muthee, Lalisa Duguma, Christine Majale, Monicah Mucheru-Muna, Priscilla Wainaina, Peter Minang (2022). A quantitative appraisal of selected agroforestry studies in the Sub-Saharan Africa, Heliyon, Volume 8, Issue 9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10670.