Towards productive landscapes: Trade-offs in tree-cover and income across a matrix of smallholder agricultural land-use systems

One of the main causes of tropical forest loss is conversion to agriculture, which is constantly increasing as a dominant land cover in the tropics. The loss of forests greatly affects biodiversity and ecosystem services. This paper assesses the economic return from increasing tree cover in agricult...

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Autores principales: Rahman,S.A., Sunderland, Terry C.H., Kshatriya, Mrigesh, Roshetko, James M., Healey, J.R., Pagella, Tim
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/93992
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author Rahman,S.A.
Sunderland, Terry C.H.
Kshatriya, Mrigesh
Roshetko, James M.
Healey, J.R.
Pagella, Tim
author_browse Healey, J.R.
Kshatriya, Mrigesh
Pagella, Tim
Rahman,S.A.
Roshetko, James M.
Sunderland, Terry C.H.
author_facet Rahman,S.A.
Sunderland, Terry C.H.
Kshatriya, Mrigesh
Roshetko, James M.
Healey, J.R.
Pagella, Tim
author_sort Rahman,S.A.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description One of the main causes of tropical forest loss is conversion to agriculture, which is constantly increasing as a dominant land cover in the tropics. The loss of forests greatly affects biodiversity and ecosystem services. This paper assesses the economic return from increasing tree cover in agricultural landscapes in two tropical locations, West Java, Indonesia and eastern Bangladesh. Agroforestry systems are compared with subsistence seasonal food-crop-based agricultural systems. Data were collected through rapid rural appraisal, field observation, focus groups and semi-structured interviews of farm households. The inclusion of agroforestry tree crops in seasonal agriculture improved the systems’ overall economic performance (net present value), even when it reduced understorey crop production. However, seasonal agriculture has higher income per unit of land area used for crop cultivation compared with the tree establishment and development phase of agroforestry farms. Thus, there is a trade-off between short-term loss of agricultural income and longer-term economic gain from planting trees in farmland. For resource-poor farmers to implement this change, institutional support is needed to improve their knowledge and skills with this unfamiliar form of land management, sufficient capital for the initial investment, and an increase in the security of land tenure.
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publishDateRange 2016
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spelling CGSpace939922025-06-17T08:23:54Z Towards productive landscapes: Trade-offs in tree-cover and income across a matrix of smallholder agricultural land-use systems Rahman,S.A. Sunderland, Terry C.H. Kshatriya, Mrigesh Roshetko, James M. Healey, J.R. Pagella, Tim deforestation crop production tree planting income ecosystem services One of the main causes of tropical forest loss is conversion to agriculture, which is constantly increasing as a dominant land cover in the tropics. The loss of forests greatly affects biodiversity and ecosystem services. This paper assesses the economic return from increasing tree cover in agricultural landscapes in two tropical locations, West Java, Indonesia and eastern Bangladesh. Agroforestry systems are compared with subsistence seasonal food-crop-based agricultural systems. Data were collected through rapid rural appraisal, field observation, focus groups and semi-structured interviews of farm households. The inclusion of agroforestry tree crops in seasonal agriculture improved the systems’ overall economic performance (net present value), even when it reduced understorey crop production. However, seasonal agriculture has higher income per unit of land area used for crop cultivation compared with the tree establishment and development phase of agroforestry farms. Thus, there is a trade-off between short-term loss of agricultural income and longer-term economic gain from planting trees in farmland. For resource-poor farmers to implement this change, institutional support is needed to improve their knowledge and skills with this unfamiliar form of land management, sufficient capital for the initial investment, and an increase in the security of land tenure. 2016-12 2018-07-03T10:56:46Z 2018-07-03T10:56:46Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/93992 en Open Access Elsevier Rahman, S.A., Sunderland, T.C.H., Kshatriya, M., Roshetko, J.M., Healey, J.R., Pagella, T.. 2016. Towards productive landscapes : Trade-offs in tree-cover and income across a matrix of smallholder agricultural land-use systems. Land Use Policy, 58 : 152-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.07.003
spellingShingle deforestation
crop production
tree planting
income
ecosystem services
Rahman,S.A.
Sunderland, Terry C.H.
Kshatriya, Mrigesh
Roshetko, James M.
Healey, J.R.
Pagella, Tim
Towards productive landscapes: Trade-offs in tree-cover and income across a matrix of smallholder agricultural land-use systems
title Towards productive landscapes: Trade-offs in tree-cover and income across a matrix of smallholder agricultural land-use systems
title_full Towards productive landscapes: Trade-offs in tree-cover and income across a matrix of smallholder agricultural land-use systems
title_fullStr Towards productive landscapes: Trade-offs in tree-cover and income across a matrix of smallholder agricultural land-use systems
title_full_unstemmed Towards productive landscapes: Trade-offs in tree-cover and income across a matrix of smallholder agricultural land-use systems
title_short Towards productive landscapes: Trade-offs in tree-cover and income across a matrix of smallholder agricultural land-use systems
title_sort towards productive landscapes trade offs in tree cover and income across a matrix of smallholder agricultural land use systems
topic deforestation
crop production
tree planting
income
ecosystem services
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/93992
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