WEBINAR 3: Governance,

economics and financing for

climate-smart agroforestry

Peter A. Dewees

Forests Adviser

World Bank

TRANSITIONS ARE UNDERWAY

Global forest cover

is degrading and

declining;

Tree cover as well

as the number of

trees on farms is

increasing.

Source: FAO (2005). State of the

World’s Forests.

TRANSITIONS ARE UNDERWAY

TREES ON FARMS ARE INCREASING.

Why?

CASH ON THE STUMP…

ESTABLISHING BOUNDARIES…

IMPROVING CROP PRODUCTIVITY…

…AND INCREASING HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION.

THREE MAJOR CHALLENGES

FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

• Globally, there is a need to more

than double food production to

forestall food crises, particularly in

Africa

• …while making agriculture more

resilient to climate shocks, and

• …and reducing greenhouse gas

emissions

Cereal Yields

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001

Kg

pe

r H

ec

tare

East Asia and

Pacific

Sub-Saharan

Africa

South Asia

Latin America &

Caribbean

Fertilizer

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

1961 1971 1981 1991 2001

Year

10

0 g

ra

ms

pe

r h

ec

tare

East Asia and

Pacific

South Asia

Sub-Saharan

Africa

Latin America

& Caribbean

CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURE

Triple wins in agriculture

• Increasing crop productivity

and income (poverty

reduction)

• Building resilience into

farming systems (adaptation)

• Capturing carbon (mitigation)

Is there a role for trees in

farming systems?

WHICH FARMING SYSTEMS?

• Intensive farming systems that integrate trees

with annual crops, maintaining a green cover on

the land throughout the year.

• Farming systems which feature both perennial

and annual species (food crops and trees).

EXAMPLES FROM AFRICA

• Faidherbia albida in maize production systems

• Intercropped coppicing leguminous trees in maize (eg Gliricidia in

Malawi)

• Fodder shrubs for balanced dairy nutrition (eg Caliandra in the East

African Dairy Project)

• Mango and other fruits intercropped in maize systems

• Grevillia robusta intercropped in maize for timber, fodder & fuel

• Relay-cropped leguminous species managed as annual green manure

(eg Tephrosia)

• Improved fallows with leguminous species (eg Sesbania sesban)

National recommendations for maize in Malawi & Zambia:

Faidherbia fertilizer Trees at 100 trees per ha

INNOVATIONS IN FARMING SYSTEMS

ECONOMICS OF AGROFORESTRY

W H A T M A T T E R S

M O S T:

• Yields with and

without

• Establishment

costs

• Management

costs

• Net benefits

• Discount rates

C O S T - B E N E F I T A S A

T O O L

• Useful for

lifecycle analysis

• Comparative

• Benefit-cost

ratios

• But it’s a blunt

instrument

See: Dewees, P. “Trees on farms in Malawi: private investment,

public policy, and farmer choice.” World Development, 23, (7),

pp.1085-1102, July 1995

FAIDHERBIA ECONOMICS

2 5 T R E E S I N

F I E L D S R E S U LT S

• Low establishment costs

and low maintenance

costs

• Even at low yield

increases, B/C ratio is > 1

• Yield increases of up to

70 percent suggest that

Faidherbia is a good

agroforestry species

LEUCAENA ECONOMICS

A L L E Y C R O P P I N G R E S U LT S

• High establishment costs and high maintenance costs

• Because of high annualized costs, even at high yields, this system is not economic

• Labor costs are the key disincentive

IMPACTS IN AFRICA, AT SCALE

Adoption of systems like Faidherbia albida/Gliricidia

sepium on an additional 5 million ha:

Value of nitrogen fertilizer

produced by farmers at the

farm level

$500 million per year

Amount of additional maize

produced

5 to 10 million tons per year

Value of additional maize

produced

$1 to $1.5 billion

Amount of additional carbon

captured

30 to 50 million tons per

year (valued between $450

million and $1.25 billion)

WHAT ARE THE KEY DEVELOPMENT ISSUES?

• Challenge to stimulate national and

international policy support

• Integrate tree seed systems with private sector

input dealers

• Insert evergreen agriculture into integrated soil

fertility management & conservation agriculture

• Build capacity within national systems to do

further research and development on evergreen

agriculture

• Test a range of scaling-up models for wider

impact

RESOURCES

World Agroforestry Center

www.worldagroforestrycentre.org

Center for International Forestry Research

www.cifor.org

World Bank

www.worldbank.org/forests

Program on Forests (PROFOR)

www.profor.info