This site uses cookies, as explained in our terms of use. If you consent, please close this message and continue to use this site.
1 min Read
Agroforestry, the cultivation of trees and agricultural crops in close combination with one another, is an ancient practice used by farmers throughout the world. It produces food and sustains livelihoods, while also enhancing biodiversity and conservation, improving soil and water quality, and controlling erosion. In addition, when strategically applied on a large scale, agroforestry enables agricultural lands to withstand weather events, such as floods and droughts, and even climate change.
In recognition of the benefits of agroforestry, ICIMOD, through its REDD+ Initiative, is promoting the intercropping of paulownia, a deciduous hardwood, and coffee on agricultural lands in Gorkha and Chitwan. A total of 5,000 paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa) trees and 5,000 coffee (Coffee Arabica) saplings have been distributed in Gorkha and Chitwan. Paulownia was ordered from the Himalayan Parbat Nursery at Godavari, while coffee saplings were bought from the Organic Coffee Nursery at Thula Pokhara, Arghakhanchi district. The paulownia saplings will be planted by local communities on farm land and in degraded community forests, religious forests, and school compounds, where they will sequester carbon and provide timber, thereby reducing the pressure on natural forests and contributing to biodiversity conservation. The coffee saplings will be planted on private land only and will generate income after four years.
ICIMOD will monitor these agroforestry demonstration sites every four months for up to two years. By 2016, it is expected that many of these sites should be well established, as local communities have shown great enthusiasm for testing this new agroforestry system. If this system is successful, then bee hives and coffee beans processing machines can be co-financed by the project. The success of this model will determine its replicability. This activity has fostered a deeper bond between ICIMOD and the communities in the REDD+ sites. Even earthquake-affected villages have seen this as a great opportunity for rebuilding their farm lands. Such agroforestry systems is one REDD intervention strategy with local co-benefits.
Share
Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.
related contents
ICIMOD and the Central Himalayan Environmental Association (CHEA) organized a five-day visit for the farmers/ beekeepers and the staff of partner organization ...
A Declaration of Participating Institutions was signed by institutional representatives participating in the Workshop on Opportunities for Transboundary Collaboration for ...
Brick workers, both women and men, face numerous vulnerabilities without any form of social protection. The seasonal migration that this ...
As an intergovernmental agency focusing on applied research and knowledge sharing, ICIMOD works to bridge the gap between academia, researchers, ...
With the aim to build capacity of researchers on conceptual and operational aspects of ecosystem management framework, a workshop was ...
ICIMOD, partners, and local governments have come together to save lives from flash flooding by installing eleven such community-based flood ...
From 26-28 January 2016, the first writers’ workshop for the coordinating lead authors of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and ...