Below the Radar: Designer Farms with Trees
an article by Tony Dominski

Wangari Maathi who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize (see CPNN report) showed that trees have the potential to improve rural economics and environment. However, it is a little known fact that careful plantings of trees on farms can greatly improve agricultural productivity. This practice is known as agroforestry.

For example, hedgerows of trees and shrubs of the pea family, e.g., locust and acacia, can improve the yields of adjacent agricultural crops such as grain. Pea family trees have the special virtue of producing nitrogen fertilizer from the raw material of atmospheric nitrogen. The tree leaves can be pruned for organic fertilizer or used as fodder for livestock. Hedgerows also protect valuable topsoil from blowing or washing away and are especially valuable in windy or hilly areas.

Other uses of trees on farms include the production of fruits and nuts, the ability to function as living fences, and as a source of building materials, firewood, and even medicine. For example, quinine and natural aspirin are derived from tree bark. Many of these and other tree products can be sold as cash crops.

The potential of designer farms with trees to improve the life and environment of millions, even billions of the planet’s poor rural residents is huge. However, this kind of agricultural development is still its infancy. Research and pilot projects are now proceeding on every continent.

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The role of organic farming
Can it help preserve the planet and end world hunger?

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LATEST READER COMMENT:

If ever there was a liberating technology for the planet it is agroforestry.  It works because trees, with trunks and branches, holding up their leaves to the sun, are efficient solar collectors.labor, energy and soil damage due to plowing.  

Trees add organic matter to the soil in the form of leaves, and dead branches and roots.  This organic matter is the biological basis for invaluable topsoil with its community of worms, insects and microbes.  

Trees provide innumerable opportunities for increasing agricutural productivity.  For example, mulberry trees can be planted in chicken yards.. . ...more.

This report was posted on November 15, 2004. The moderator is Joe.

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