Multifunctional agriculture and opportunities for agroforestry: implications of IAASTD

Abstract

To explain the relationship between agroforestry and multifunctional agriculture, this chapter presents some of the key messages from the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) vis-à-vis the objectives of agroforestry. Multifunctional agriculture has been proposed as a paradigm for productive and sustainable agriculture, which is especially appropriate for poor smallholders in the tropics. Agroforestry, like multifunctional agriculture, has the objective of promoting economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable rural development. This chapter briefly summarizes some of the major global issues of land degradation, poverty, malnutrition, and hunger and examines how agroforestry can play a substantial role in the delivery of a better future. To illustrate these points, an integrated rural development project in Cameroon is presented as a good example of how agroforestry can rehabilitate degraded land, diversify farming systems with domesticated indigenous trees, and create business and employment opportunities in rural communities, which substantially improve the livelihoods of rural people.