Adopting and Innovating Agroforestry

In agriculture what is more important, diversity or abundance?

Unfortunately this is a loaded question and the answer is mixed, but most often then not the answer is more diversity leads to better agricultural operations. So how does agroforestry play into this diversity concept? To begin we have to define some key terms that help us understand how agroforestry and diversity then create successful agriculture operations.

Innovation/Technology transfer: Is the process of integrating new and innovative technology into operations in a way that creates a more efficient and productive environment.

Diffusion of Innovation Paradigm: The act of innovative designs being incorporated into society as a whole.

Agroforestry: Is a collective name for land use systems and technologies in which woody perennial are deliberately combined on the same land management unit with hervaeous crops and/or animals, either in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems: is human experiences, organised and ordered into accumulated knowledge with the objective to utilise it to achieve quality of life and to create a livable environment for both human and other forms of life.

Endogenous Technology: Is an economic theory which argues that economic growth is generated from within a system as a direct result of internal processes and will lead to economic growth by means of the development of new forms of technology.

Now that we have defined the key terms listed above we may begin to discuss how agroforestry plays such a large role in the diversity level of agriculture. The dissertation from Professor Bradley Tyndall titled The Anatomy of Innovation Adoption: The Case of Successful Agroforestry in East Africa (1996) is a very interesting text regarding the successful integration of agroforestry into farming in East Africa to increase maximum sustainable yield and create diversity. The most interesting aspect of this dissertation is the effectiveness of the Grevillea tree in producing fuelwood for the farmers in a sustainable manner. The Grevillea tree is a Silver Oak tree that grows in Australia and has recently been introduced to Africa. The amazing aspect of the Grevillea tree is its rapid growth and cultivation rate, this makes it extremely cost effective to divert a portion of land to the cultivation of these Silver Oaks for use as fuelwood.

In East Africa the poverty rate is rampant with a majority of the population unable to sustainably heat and cook in their own homes. With farmers producing an abundance of certain crops the soil has begun to deteriorate in quality of nutrient. So farmers have begun to grow and cultivate the Grevillea tree as a percentage of their irrigated land, in so producing different nutrients for the soil and later harvesting the wood as fuelwood for heating and cooking. All this culminates in the practice of agroforestry and the creation of diversity from abundance, which creates a win-win for the farmers of East Africa that do not rely on the energy and fuel from the corrupt governments, and it creates a healthier soil that is more diversified in cultivation.

With the Grevillea tree being used solely for private utility this makes it a non-market good, as it is not commercially sold in the area. But being a non-market good still creates a high demand product. Currently 94 percent of farmers in East Africa grow and harvest the Silver Oaks for private use, seeing that they are cost effective, have rapid maturity phases, and consume at a very efficient rate, the percent of farmers may have grown to close to 100 percent in East Africa alone and even more around the world. The Grevillea tree should remain a non-market good, because it is extremely efficient towards farming techniques creating diversity in crops as well as creating sustainable operations for numerous families in rural East Africa.

This is just one example of a resource that may create diversity out of abundance, and in doing so increasing the efficiency and cost effectiveness of an agricultural operation.

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Onward,

Hayden van Andel