By Patrick Chesney
📃• World Soil Day •
Published: December 5, 2022
The unavoidable conclusion is to place agroforestry at the centre of an integrated landscape approach.
Patrick Chesney ✉️, PC Consultants.
The universally accepted definition of agroforestry is that it is a collective name for land management systems and technologies where woody perennials (typically trees and shrubs) are grown on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and/or livestock, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence (FAO, 2015; King, 1987; Nair et al., 2021). When agroforestry systems combine crops and trees they are known as agri-silvicultural systems. Alley cropping is an example of a simultaneous agri-silvicultural practice where crops and trees are spatially separated. It is the growing of annual crops in alleys between rows of planted fast growing nitrogen fixing trees (Kang & Wilson, 1987).
A key implication of the agroforestry definition is the potential for both ecological and economical interactions between the different components in the land management system. Two-way complementary resource capture is a key objective of spatially arranged components in agroforestry systems (Ong et al., 1996) that often requires careful selection of the woody components. In the humid tropics, trees compete with associated crops for growth factors such as light and nutrients. Rao et al. (1998) have shown that trees are managed by periodic shoot pruning to prevent shading of the associated crop and the nutrient-containing pruned materials ae usually incorporated as green manure or applied as much to the soil to support crop nutrition or to protect the soil. Chesney (2012) reviewed the biophysical science of shoot pruning of the woody components in simultaneous agroforestry practices as an essential management practice to avoid competition for growth factors, such as light and nutrients, and to provide the service attributes (mainly biomass and nutrients) of the trees to the associated crops and soil. In a pruned-managed agroforestry practice, partial pruning preserves the service attributes of trees and minimises interspecific completion for growth factors.
Chesney (2008) found that biomass yield from partial shoot pruning of Erythrina poeppigiana (Walp.) O.F. Cook in an alley cropping practice with tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) in the humid tropics has the potential to contribute between 4.4 and 9 Mg ha-1 of aboveground biomass containing between 123 to 256 kg N ha-1. Partial shoot pruning conserved fine root length for nutrient capture and uptake. The nitrogen yield could meet the elemental nutrient requirement for most annual crops grown in the tropics (IICA, 1989). Marschner (1997) indicated that root growth is enhanced at sites with high nutrient supply. In annual crop species, rooting density rapidly increases several fold in zones of higher nutrient concentrations, especially of nitrogen. The implication for crop nutrition is the return of nutrient rich-tree biomass to the soil and the release of nutrients for uptake by crops to produce the economic yield. The use of fast growing nitrogen fixing trees like Erythrina allows for the rapid decomposition of the biomass, as the level of biochemical barriers to decomposition such as lignin and polyphenols is low (Palm & Sanchez, 1991).
The use of agroforestry is an attractive land management system for low fertility soils in the hinterland of Guyana, the present frontier for agricultural expansion given the current and projected impacts of climate change (sea level rise, salt water intrusion, and extreme weather events) on the ecosystems of the Low Coastal Plain natural region, and the recent policy decisions to shift commercial agriculture inland (Government of Guyana, 2018; 2022). The 2005 floods caused economic damage equivalent to 60% of gross domestic product, and the 2021 floods were declared a national disaster and affected over 52,000 hectares and 1.3 million animals (Government of Guyana, 2022).
Low fertility soils are associated with poor agricultural land (Land Capability Classification Class III), which accounts for 8,227,247 ha or 39% of Guyana’s landmass found in ‘hotspots’ (areas with high potential for development), such as Matthews Ridge/Port Kaituma, Bartica-Linden, the Intermediate Savannahs-Canje Basin, and Northern Rupununi (GLSC, 2013). These areas are candidate sites for sustainable agriculture under the Low Carbon Development Strategy (Government of Guyana, 2022). There are central government plans to invest significantly in the commercial development of corn (Zea mays L.) and soya beans (Glycine max L.) in the Intermediate Savannahs (Department of Public Information, 2021). Hopefully, the investment becomes fully compliant with the provisions of the Seed Act No. 8 of 2011 and the National Biosafety Framework (EPA, 2007), given that Guyana is a signatory to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Agroforestry research (Chesney et al., 2010; Simpson & Wickham 2000) has been carried out in the Intermediate Savannahs that show promise for cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.), corn and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench.). These publications build on more than 50 years of research on food and agriculture in the Intermediate Savannahs and other hotspots. The unavoidable conclusion is to place agroforestry at the centre of an integrated landscape approach (Reed et al., 2021) to food and agriculture that integrates ecology. Such an approach will allow Guyana to leverage its high biocapacity, which represents the productivity of its ecological assets (including cropland, grazing land, forest land, fishing grounds, and built-up land) for food and agriculture. This approach also addresses issues related to biodiversity loss, climate change adaptation, and the provision of environmental services.
References
Chesney, P.E.K. (2008). Nitrogen and fine root length dynamics in a tropical agroforestry system with periodically pruned Erythrina poeppigiana. Agroforestry Systems, 72, 149-159.
Chesney, P.E.K., Simpson, L.A., Cumberbatch, R.N., Homenauth, O. & Benjamin, F. (2010). Cowpea yield performance in an alley cropping practice on an acid infertile soil at Ebini, Guyana. The Open Agriculture Journal, 4, 80-84.
Chesney, P.E.K. (2012). Shoot pruning and impact on functional equilibrium between shoots and roots in simultaneous agroforestry systems. In M. Kaonga (Ed.), Agroforestry for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services – Science and Practice (pp. 87-112). In-Tech.
Department of Public Information. (2021, February 14). $500M budgeted for corn, soya bean cultivation. https://dpi.gov.gy/500m-budgeted-for-corn-soya-bean-cultivation/
EPA. (2007). National biosafety framework for Guyana. Environmental Protection Agency-Guyana. https://bch.cbd.int/en/database/43472
FAO. (2015, October 23). Agroforestry: Definition. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/forestry/agroforestry/80338/en/
GLSC. (2013). Guyana national land use plan. Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission. Georgetown. https://glsc.gov.gy/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/National-Land-Use-Plan-Final-Oct-2013.pdf
Government of Guyana. (2018). Green state development strategy. Georgetown. https://observatorioplanificacion.cepal.org/sites/default/files/plan/files/GSDS2040.pdf
Government of Guyana. (2022). Guyana’s low carbon development strategy 2030. Georgetown. https://lcds.gov.gy/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Guyanas-Low-Carbon-Development-Strategy-2030.pdf
IICA. (1989). Compendio de Agronomia Tropical. Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. San Jose.
Kang, B.T. & Wilson, G.F. (1987). The development of alley cropping as a promising agroforestry technology. In H.A. Steppler & P.K.R. Nair (Eds.), Agroforestry: A decade of development (pp. 227-243). International Council for Research in Agroforestry.
King, K.F.S. (1987). The history of agroforestry. In H.A. Stepler & P.K.R. Nair (Eds.), Agroforestry: A decade of development. International Council for Research in Agroforestry. https://apps.worldagroforestry.org/Units/Library/Books/Book%2007/agroforestry%20a%20decade%20of%20development/html/1_the%20history.htm?n=7
Marschner, H. (1997). Mineral nutrition of higher plants. Second Edition. Academic Press, San Diego CA.
Nair, P.K.R., Mohan Kumar, B. & Nair, V.D. (2021). An introduction to agroforestry: Four decades of scientific developments. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-75358-0
Ong, C.K., Black, C.R., Marshall, F.M. & Corlett, J.E. (1996). Principles of resource capture and utilization of light and water. In C.K. Ong & P. Huxley (Eds.), Tree-Crop Interactions: A physiological approach (pp. 73-158). CAB International.
Palm, C.A. & Sanchez, P.A. (1991). Nitrogen release from the leaves of some tropical legumes as affected by their lignin and polyphenol contents. Soil Biol Biochem, 23(1), 83-88.
Reed, J., Kusters, K., Barlow, J., Balinga, M., Borah, J. R., Carmenta, R., … & Sunderland, T. (2021). Re-integrating ecology into integrated landscape approaches. Landscape Ecology, 36(8), 2395-2407.
Simpson, L.A. & Wickham, C. (2000). The performance of cowpea, maize and sorghum in alley cropping trial with Leucaena and Gliricidia in the Intermediate Savannahs of Guyana. CARDI, Guyana.
