Agroforestry, an ancient and adaptable land-use practice, is experiencing a resurgence of interest in India. This intentional integration of trees and shrubs with crops and livestock offers a powerful solution for addressing some of the nation’s most pressing environmental and socioeconomic challenges. With a staggering 55.76 million hectares (Mha) classified as wasteland and an additional 120.7 Mha as degraded land across the country (MoEFCC, 2022; ISFR, 2023), agroforestry presents a scientifically validated pathway to achieve a multitude of national goals. These include the crucial enhancement of rural livelihoods, the vital restoration of ecological balance, and a significant contribution to India’s ambitious climate targets outlined in the Paris Agreement and its Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS).

Climate mitigation and ecological restoration potential

The role of agroforestry systems in India as robust carbon sinks is increasingly recognised. These systems possess the remarkable potential to sequester an impressive 1.8 to 3.5 Mg C/ha/year (ICAR, 2021). According to the latest Forest Survey of India report (2023), trees outside forests (TOF) are a substantial and growing resource, currently contributing a growing stock of 1,291.7 million m³. This significant volume accounts for a considerable portion of India’s estimated annual carbon stock increment of 40.8 Mt C, which is approximately equivalent to 150 Mt CO2. This inherent capacity for carbon sequestration directly complements India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target of creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030 (MoEFCC, 2022).

Source: Author’s own compilation from Indiastat

Beyond carbon sequestration, agroforestry offers a multifaceted approach to enhancing socioeconomic well-being, significantly increasing income diversity and bolstering economic resilience for rural communities. Real-world examples vividly illustrate this potential. In Gujarat, a progressive farmer cultivating 4 acres with Ailanthus trees generated a remarkable income of Rs. 2,47,500 over 13 years. This was further supplemented by an impressive annual income of Rs. 1,50,000 derived from operating a nursery and selling seedlings (ICAR-CAFRI, 2023). Similarly, in Kerala, the strategic integration of fast-growing fodder trees into traditional coconut homesteads resulted in a substantial 30% reduction in feed costs for livestock, while simultaneously generating a net income of Rs. 100,000 within just three years (ICAR-CAFRI, 2023).

Such diversified agricultural practices also play a vital role in reducing household dependence on natural forests by ensuring a localised and sustainable supply of essential resources such as fuelwood, fodder, and various non-timber forest products (NAP, 2014). Consequently, agroforestry significantly contributes to rural energy security, improves livestock productivity and health, and provides a crucial buffer for farmers against the increasing variability and stress of climate change. The India State of Forest Report (2023) further highlights the immense economic importance of farm-grown trees, noting that timber sourced from TOF now constitutes a substantial 65% of the domestic timber supply, underscoring its pivotal role in the national economy and in supporting rural livelihoods.

Underutilisation and structural barriers

Despite its undeniable promise and demonstrated benefits, agroforestry in India remains largely under-deployed, operating significantly below its full potential. As of 2023, approximately 28.4 Mha of land were under agroforestry practices, representing a modest 8.65% of the total land area (NITI Aayog, 2024). This significant gap between potential and actual adoption can be attributed to several persistent and critical barriers:

• Regulatory restrictions: Historically, prior to significant reforms introduced in 2023, the felling and transit of trees from private land were often encumbered by a complex web of multiple permits and bureaucratic hurdles (MoEFCC, 2023). This cumbersome regulatory environment acted as a strong disincentive for farmers to cultivate trees on their land.
• Weak extension services: A critical impediment to widespread adoption is the limited access to high-quality planting material and adequate farmer training and technical guidance. The existing extension services often lack the reach and resources to effectively disseminate knowledge and best practices to a broad base of farmers (NAP, 2014).
• Market disincentives: Farmers frequently face significant price volatility for wood and tree products, coupled with a notable lack of organised and transparent markets. This market uncertainty and lack of stable demand create disincentives for long-term investment in tree cultivation (NAP, 2014).

A comprehensive analysis of 28 State Action Plans on Climate Change further revealed that while most states nominally acknowledge agroforestry, very few have articulated detailed, actionable strategies for its widespread adoption or committed significant investment towards its expansion (Datta et al., 2023). This highlights a critical policy gap between recognition and concrete implementation.

Success stories: Transformative outcomes

Despite facing various hurdles, numerous instances across India unequivocally showcase the transformative potential of thoughtfully executed agroforestry initiatives. These success stories not only highlight significant environmental improvements but also demonstrate substantial economic upliftment and enhanced community resilience.

1. Niwari, Madhya Pradesh (Garhkundar-Dabar watershed): A Model for Integrated Resource Management

In the Garhkundar-Dabar watershed of Niwari, Madhya Pradesh, a strategic and integrated approach combining agroforestry interventions with robust watershed management structures has yielded remarkable results. Environmentally, the impact was profound: surface runoff was dramatically reduced by 34-46%, indicating improved water infiltration and reduced water wastage. Concurrently, soil loss, a major concern in agricultural regions, saw an impressive decrease of 43%. This reduction directly contributes to the long-term health and fertility of agricultural lands, mitigating erosion 

and preserving vital topsoil. Economically, the region experienced a significant revitalisation. Cropping intensity, a key indicator of land utilisation, soared from a baseline of 104% to an impressive 161%. This expansion means more crops are being grown on the same land area, leading to increased agricultural output. Furthermore, the yields of various crops improved significantly, ranging from 20-60%, directly boosting farmers’ incomes and food security. A crucial and often overlooked benefit was the area’s transformation into a fodder-surplus region. This abundance of fodder significantly enhanced livestock productivity, reducing the dependency on external feed sources and creating a more self-sufficient agricultural system (ICAR-CAFRI, 2016). This case study powerfully illustrates how integrated agroforestry can drive both ecological restoration and sustainable economic growth.

2. Bihar (Jeevika Project): Empowering Women through Agroforestry

The Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (Jeevika), generously supported by the World Bank, stands as a testament to the power of gender-inclusive development through agroforestry. Under this initiative, women’s self-help groups (SHGs) in Bihar actively embraced agroforestry as a dual strategy for income diversification and the crucial task of soil stabilisation on fragile riverine sandbars. Farmers strategically planted fast-growing and economically valuable trees such as poplar and bamboo, alongside various fruit trees. These were intercropped with staple pulses and nutrient-rich vegetables, creating a multi-layered agricultural system. The project’s impact was far-reaching, benefiting over 10,000 households. Participants experienced tangible improvements in soil fertility, a direct result of the trees’ ability to enrich the soil and prevent erosion. The sale of fruits and bamboo generated a significant and consistent cash flow, providing much-needed economic stability and improving livelihoods. Beyond the direct financial gains, the Jeevika project profoundly strengthened women’s collective management capacities. By participating in planning, implementation, and decision-making, women gained valuable skills, enhanced their agency, and solidified their role as key drivers of community development (World Bank, 2021). This initiative serves as a compelling example of how agroforestry can be a powerful tool for economic empowerment and social equity, particularly for marginalised communities.

3. Himachal Pradesh (Eco-Resilience and Apple-based Agroforestry): Innovating Traditional Horticultural Systems

In the mid-hill regions of Himachal Pradesh, innovative agroforestry models have successfully integrated the region’s traditional apple orchards with other valuable plant species, fostering both ecological resilience and economic diversification. These models incorporate grasses and medicinal plants, such as lemongrass and asparagus, within and around apple orchards. This intelligent intercropping strategy led to a significant enhancement in land productivity, increasing it by an impressive 35%. This means the same land area is yielding more overall output, optimising resource use. Crucially, these agroforestry systems also played a vital role in environmental protection, reducing soil erosion by 45%. This is particularly important in hilly terrains where soil degradation can be a major challenge. Beyond the primary apple crop, these diversified systems provided additional income streams from the sale of essential oils extracted from medicinal plants and other herbal products (HPFD, 2020). This showcases a successful pathway for diversification within established horticultural systems, demonstrating how traditional practices can be enhanced to create more resilient, productive, and economically viable agricultural landscapes.

4. Odisha (Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project): Restoring Degraded Lands and Boosting Rural Incomes

The Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project, a collaborative effort implemented in partnership with JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and the World Bank, focused on the critical task of rehabilitating degraded forest and private farmlands through participatory agroforestry approaches. This ambitious project successfully brought over 100,000 hectares under cultivation, with the planting of multipurpose trees such as cashew, mango, and acacia. These species were chosen for their ecological benefits and their ability to provide diverse economic returns. The project directly benefited an astonishing 190,000 households, predominantly forest-dependent communities. These communities experienced a substantial 40% rise in their annual income, derived from the sale of tree crops and various non-timber forest products. This income diversification reduced their vulnerability and improved their overall quality of life. Furthermore, the project led to significant improvements in soil quality indices, indicating a healthier and more productive land base (World Bank, 2018). This initiative powerfully demonstrates the potential of large-scale, participatory agroforestry projects to restore degraded ecosystems, enhance biodiversity, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for vulnerable rural populations.

Policy landscape and recent momentum

India has been a pioneering nation in recognising the importance of agroforestry at the policy level. Its National Agroforestry Policy (2014) was globally unprecedented, officially recognising agroforestry as a distinct and crucial land use category. This landmark policy advocated for essential institutional reforms, the streamlining of complex regulations, and enhanced inter-ministerial coordination to foster the sector’s growth. Building upon this foundational policy, the Sub-Mission on Agroforestry (SMAF) and various Compensatory Afforestation schemes have been instrumental in providing farmers with vital support in the form of planting material, technical guidance, and crucial financial incentives.

In a significant stride towards easing adoption, the Government released Model Guidelines in 2023 aimed at simplifying transit rules for tree felling on agricultural land. These progressive guidelines empower farmers to register tree species online and utilise self-declarations, drastically reducing the bureaucratic burden and making it easier for farmers to harvest their tree products (MoEFCC, 2023). Furthermore, NITI Aayog’s innovative GROW initiative (2024) has employed sophisticated spatial analysis to identify explicit opportunities for agroforestry expansion across 140 districts. This data-driven approach promises to enable more effective targeting of policy interventions and financial resources, maximising the impact of agroforestry programmes (NITI Aayog, 2024).

The Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy (LT-LEDS) further cements the strategic importance of agroforestry, explicitly highlighting Trees Outside Forests (TOF) and agroforestry as critical pathways for achieving carbon neutrality. The strategy unequivocally calls for enhanced convergence and synergy across various rural development and climate programmes, recognising the integrated nature of these challenges and solutions (MoEFCC, 2022).

Conclusion

Agroforestry in India is at a crucial and exciting juncture, poised for significant growth and impact. It has demonstrably proven its profound capacity to contribute substantially to India’s ambitious climate targets, its vital ecological restoration goals, and its essential objectives for enhancing rural livelihoods across the nation. While the current rates of adoption for agroforestry practices remain below their true potential, there is a compelling confluence of factors providing strong impetus for scaling up these initiatives. New, sophisticated data systems are offering unprecedented insights into the benefits and optimal implementation of agroforestry, often leveraging remote sensing and AI for precision. Progressive regulatory reforms, such as the National Agroforestry Policy (2014) and various state-level incentives, are creating a more conducive policy environment, streamlining processes, and incentivising adoption. Furthermore, a growing body of documented successes, evident at both the individual farm and broader landscape levels (e.g., poplar-based agroforestry in Punjab or cashew-based systems in coastal areas), provides robust evidence of agroforestry’s effectiveness and its positive socio-economic and environmental outcomes.

To truly unlock the full promise and transformative power of agroforestry, robust investment is required in crucial extension services to disseminate knowledge and best practices to farmers, leveraging digital platforms and farmer producer organisations (FPOs), and in market infrastructure to support the production and sale of agroforestry products, including value addition and certification mechanisms for sustainable products. With these focused and integrated efforts, India possesses a unique opportunity to harness the transformative power of agroforestry. This will not only contribute to building a more sustainable and resilient agricultural sector, enhancing climate resilience and biodiversity, but also foster a more prosperous future for millions of rural households through diversified income streams, while simultaneously addressing critical environmental challenges like land degradation and water scarcity.

References

• Datta, D., Chaturvedi, R., & Das, S. (2023). India’s Approach to Agroforestry as an Effective Strategy in the Context of Climate Change. Agricultural Systems, 214, 103840.

• Forest Survey of India. (2023). India State of Forest Report 2023. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

• Government of India. (2014). National Agroforestry Policy. MoEFCC.

• HPFD. (2020). Apple-based Agroforestry Models for Sustainable Livelihoods in Himachal Pradesh. Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Forest Department.

• ICAR-CAFRI. (2015, 2016, 2023). Agroforestry Success Stories. Jhansi: ICAR.

• MoEFCC. (2022). India’s Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategy (LT-LEDS).

• MoEFCC. (2023). Model Guidelines for Felling and Transit of Trees Grown on Private Land.

• NITI Aayog. (2024). GROW Report: Greening and Restoration of Wastelands with Agroforestry.

• World Bank. (2018). Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project. Washington, D.C.World Bank. (2021). Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (Jeevika) Implementation Completion Report. Washington, D.C.