Current agricultural practices impose a great strain on soil, water, biodiversity, and atmospheric resources which is not sustainable; thus, highly productive farming systems having a low environmental footprint are desperately needed. During the last six decades degradation of soil quality and water quality have received increasing public attention as it affects human wellbeing. The loss of productivity due soil erosion is US$44 and US$400 billion annually in the USA and globally, respectively. Humans are depleting the Earth’s natural resources and our living capital, decreasing biodiversity, and degrading ecosystem services and thereby putting the wellbeing of current and future generations at risk. How the land will treat us in the future is determined by how we treat the land now.
Improved farming techniques using modern machinery, supplying plant nutrients, and incorporation of improved varieties have increased land productivity since the green revolution. Supply of nitrogen and phosphorus, the two major nutrients for plant production, will become challenging due to resource limitations. Even with economically viable fertilizer production techniques, application of plant nutrients to increase land productivity will be constrained due to their environmental impacts. While investments conservation practices has been slowly increasing, the projected nine billion people by 2050 raises serious concerns about sustainable land management.
Agroforestry (AGF) is an “intensive land-use management that optimizes the benefits (physical, biological, ecological, economic, social) from biophysical interactions created when trees and/or shrubs are intentionally integrated with crops and/or livestock to achieve economic, conservation, and economical goals.” While agroforestry has historic roots, formal studies and promotion of AGF only began in 1970s. Early studies conducted in the tropics evaluated socio-economics factors. During the last three decades researchers in all six continents examined the interactions among the components of, production, environmental services, and socio-economics AGF.
Results/Conclusions: Agroforestry practices provide ecosystem services irrespective of management strategies and regions. Supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural services provided by AGF can be considered sustainable. Researches have shown improved soil quality, carbon sequestration, water quality, water storage, biodiversity, and economic benefits due to adoption of agroforestry. Since ecosystem services emphasis influence sustainability goals and conservation efforts, policy changes and major investment can be expected for the enhanced adoption of practices that provide ecosystem services. In 2008, the Farm Bill instructed federal agencies to explore ecosystem services and their potential marketable environmental services which paved the path to establish the Office of Ecosystem Services in Markets in US Department of Agriculture.