What is Farm Forestry?

By : Neha Dhyani

Updated : Jun 14, 2022, 15:29

The requirement of promoting Farm Forestry was necessary to cover the huge scarcity of forest lands in India. Global agricultural history specifies the fact that vast territories consisting of tropical forests were cut down to form agricultural lands from the year 1980 to 1990. It is estimated that 80% of international agricultural expansion was carried out by clearing forest lands.

Farm Forestry Objective

The malpractice of removing forest lands to form agricultural land are widespread in developing countries. Through deforestation, developing countries produced more than 500,000 square miles of new agricultural land.

The booming population, along with food scarcity, was the main reason for deforesting territories and converting them into farmland. Corporates and corporate-mediated farms played a significant role in this massive deforestation to convert lands into agricultural-friendly territory.

Types of Farm Forestry

Agri-environmental system - It consists of a mix of crops and trees.

System of silvopastoral agriculture - It consists of a mix of farm animals and woodland.

System of agrosilvopastoral agriculture - It's a mix of plants, animals, and food crops.

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Facts About Farm Forestry

There are numerous practical as well as economic benefits that come with employing Farm Forestry. Farm Forestry can become a hub of timber production.

Timber is a type of wood that has a worldwide commercial demand. Hence, planting timber-producing trees can benefit the farmers by gaining an extra income.

Farm Forestry ensures more tree plantations and it directly helps to overcome greenery scarcity worldwide. It helps to mitigate environmental issues like soil erosion, water pollution, soil quality degradation, etc.

The Farm Forestry also helps to provide shelter and shade for the cattle and farm-grown crops. The initiative of Farm Forestry also encourages employment as the trees require caregivers to sustain optimum growth. Overall community development can also be achieved by employing the Farm Forestry approach.

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Significance of Farm Forestry

The malpractice of deforestation to gain farmland has mediated the process of environmental degradation by increasing soil erosion, soil quality degradation, unavailability of groundwater, etc. Farm Forestry refers to planting trees on the farm, ensuring more tree plantations on the planet to combat environmental degradation.

Farm Forestry also contributes to the economic aspect by planting commercially potential trees on the farmland and assisting farmers in trading their harvests.

It can be concluded that the concept of Farm Forestry needs to be spread widely and farmers need to be encouraged to employ this method as early as possible. This method not only ensures extra income for farmers but also safeguards the environment.

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FAQs on Farm Forestry

Q.1 What is Farm Forestry?

Farm Forestry refers to programmes that are solely devoted to encouraging farmers to grow trees that have commercial potential on their farming land and helping them commercialise their products.

Q.2 What are the advantages of Farm Forestry?

Farm Forestry provides numerous benefits, including the production of commercially valuable goods like timber, tannin, and charcoal. Farmers can earn extra money by selling these products, and the extra money can be used to improve the farm. Besides that, these trees grown under the Farm Forestry initiative provide shade and shelter for the grown crops on the farm.

Q.3 What are the objectives of Farm Forestry?

The objectives of Farm Forestry include encouraging people to increase tree plantation, helping the farmers to earn extra income to better their agricultural spheres, and increasing the availability of firewood, tree biomass, timber, etc.

Q.4 What are the non-commercial purposes of encouraging Farm Forestry?

The non-commercial purposes for encouraging Farm Forestry include groundwater control, prevention of ground soil corrosion, and prevention of degrading nutrients in the soil.