Investing in agroforestry: A strategy for building climate resilience

This working paper highlights the role of agroforestry in building climate resilience by restoring degraded landscapes and creating multifunctional and sustainable systems that connect nature, livelihoods, and communities.

The main recommendations to promote the widespread adoption of agroforestry business models in the three countries are provided:

• Agroforestry brings long-term benefits, but incentivizing a switch to agroforestry practices requires coordinated investment and policy support.
• It was found that many of the upland farmers in the three watersheds are poor or near-poor. Their decisions are constrained by an inability to suffer a short-term reduction in yields, they have very high discount rates, and are inhibited by the availability of land, labor, and capital at key times of the year.
• Agroforestry systems support multifunctional landscapes, providing critical ecosystem services and livelihood development.
• The dominant agriculture value chains and actors serving them reinforce the status quo and commodity focus. Any switch to agroforestry and the products it supplies requires change throughout the supply chain-from extension officers, seed suppliers, retailers, aggregators, and financiers
• Multiple factors hamper access to finance for smallholder farmers. In short, the financial products and services to fulfil the demands of farmers and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises involved in agroforestry are in short supply.
• Leveraging the unique strengths and interests of different groups, especially women, is necessary to enhance the effectiveness and inclusivity of agroforestry and community-based initiatives.