Agroforestry is an intentional, integrated, and intensive land-use management system in which trees and shrubs are grown among or around crops, pasture, or livestock in a polyculture system. Agroforestry aims to yield productivity while increasing diversity, soil health, and overall resiliency.

By creating closed-loop systems through crop and animal integration, farms minimize or eliminate the use of outside resources such as fertilizers and other chemicals. In turn, this improves water quality, enhances biodiversity, rebuilds soil and soil health, and yields many other benefits.

There are five common agroforestry practices that all focus on a perennial cyclical ecosystem: Alley Cropping, Forest Farming, Riparian Buffers, Silvopasture, and Windbreaks.  Because they all have similar goals, they can be used in conjunction with one another.

Agroforestry Practices

Alley Cropping is the cultivation of crops between wide, regularly spaced rows of trees or shrubs. Non-traditional or value-added crops can be used as well as traditional crops. Trees can be part of a forest farming system or can be used to grow specialty woods like walnut. An example of this system is growing hay in between rows of walnut trees.

Forest Farming (sometimes called Multistory Cropping) is the cultivation of high-value specialty crops (currants, mushrooms, ginseng, etc.) under existing managed forest canopies that provide certain shade levels. These crops include medicinal, culinary, and ornamental uses. Trees are usually of high quality and used for wood products.

Riparian Buffers are strips of permanent vegetation that border a stream, lake, river, or wetland. Vegetation includes grasses, shrubs, or trees and must be arranged in a certain way in order to achieve their intended goals, such as enhancing wildlife habitats or stabilizing the water bank. They protect water quality by serving as a filter for run-off, and they provide additional habitat and food for wildlife.

Silvopasture is the integration of trees, pasture, and livestock that is managed in a single, intensive system. Ruminants, swine, and poultry can all be used either independently or as a multi-species rotational grazing system. Tree crops such as apple or walnut trees offer protection from wind and sun for livestock, which in turn provide manure nutrients for the trees and pasture.

Windbreaks use trees and shrubs to protect farm sites or other infrastructure from wind, snow, and other elemental impacts. They help control soil erosion, provide shade for livestock, provide habitat for wildlife, serve as productive tree crops, and more.

To learn more visit:
USDA National Agroforestry Center 
Savanna Institute
Center for Agroforestry
SARE

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