Tree-Crop Interaction Management in Agroforestry: A Review

Abstract

Agroforestry is a complex land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown with crops or pastureland. The main aim of the system is to optimize positive interaction between various biological components like trees, shrubs and agricultural crops or animal and between the components and the physical environment, so as to obtain more diversified and more sustainable productive system from the land. The soil fertility potential of the system helps to increase productivity, improve nutrient cycling and also improve the socio-economic status of farmers. Besides to this, agroforestry systems also have a great potential to increase carbon stocks in the soil and certainly merit consideration in mechanisms that propose payments for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions to reduce climate change. But the negative interaction, such as competition for nutrient, moisture, and light and allelopathy influences the maximum production and protection potential of the system. Therefore, managing the components through selecting comparable species, pruning, mulching, using diversified species and fallowing reduces the negative effect and maximaize the multidisciplinary role of agroforestry.