Agroforestry: a complex system for resource-poor farmers

Agroforestry has potential as a technology for resource-poor farmers. Like modern high-yield intercropping systems, agroforestry has several characteristics of interest: (1) complexity, .(2) productivity, (3) risk; and (4) investment. Each characteristic has potential advantages and disadvantages for the poor which can be manipulated and improved with applied research.

Paper for the Indian Society of Tree Scientists Satellite Session on Agroforestry, Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, Bihar, 2 January 1984 and for the Ford Foundation