Page 33 - Agroforestry system - book inner (final corrected) - 9.-3-21_Neat

National level e-symposium on “Agroforestry system for augmenting livestock
productivity and empowering resource poor rural farmers”

scattered in various existing, missions, programmes, schemes and agencies pertaining to agriculture,
environment, forestry, and rural development sectors of the Government.
 Improving the productivity; employment, income and livelihood opportunities of rural households,
especially of the smallholder farmers through agroforestry.

 Meeting the ever increasing demand of timber, food, fuel, fodder, fertilizer, fibre, and other
agroforestry products; conserving the natural resources and forest; protecting the environment &
providing environmental security; and increasing the forest / tree cover, there is a need to increase the
availability of these from outside the natural forests.
The basic objectives of the Policy

 Encourage and expand tree plantation in complementarity and integrated manner with crops and
livestock to improve productivity, employment, income and livelihoods of rural households, especially
the small holder farmers.

 Protect and stabilize ecosystems, and promote resilient cropping and farming systems to minimize the
risk during extreme climatic events.
 Meet the raw material requirements of wood based industries and reduce import of wood and wood
products to save foreign exchange.
 Supplement the availability of agroforestry products (AFPs), such as the fuel-wood, fodder, non-
timber forest produce and small timber of the rural and tribal populations, thereby reducing the
pressure on existing forests.
 Complement achieving the target of increasing forest/tree cover to promote ecological stability,
especially in the vulnerable regions.
 Develop capacity and strengthen research in agroforestry and create a massive people’s movement for
achieving these objectives and to minimize pressure on existing forests.
However, there are many challenges to implement the National Agroforestry Policy and to achieve its
objectives such as appropriate guidelines for production of quality planting material and supply system and
coordination, convergence and synergy between various sectors linked with agroforestry will be required.
This will require adequate research interventions and support as well as trained manpower.

Sub-Mission on Agroforestry (SMAF) & National Bamboo Mission
Based on the recommendations of the National Agroforestry Policy (NAP), a dedicated Sub-Mission on
Agroforestry (SMAF) was established by Government of India under the framework of National Mission for
Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) The SMAF is focused to achieve increased tree cover to enhance carbon
sequestration, enrichment of soil organic matter, availability of quality planting material, improved livelihood
and productivity. Relaxation of transit regulations is a pre-requisite for assistance under Sub-Mission on
Agroforestry (SMAF). Keeping in view the vast untapped potential of the bamboo sector, to boost the domestic
production for supply to the industry, recently (2018) a National Bamboo Mission (NBM) has been launched.
This is expected to give a big boost to bamboo-based agroforestry systems.

14 Institute of Animal Nutrition, Centre for Animal Production Studies, TANUVAS
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development