Читать книгу North American Agroforestry - Группа авторов - Страница 27

The development of a domestic agroforestry program for the United States offers unique opportunities for the scientific community that embraces forest and agricultural sciences and can provide the opportunity for focusing issue‐based science to address some of today’s most complex problems. The scientific community currently is being challenged to search for viable solutions to complex environmental problems that are beyond its capabilities to address with customary precision and certainty (Burke et al., 2017). Consider the environmental and economic problems facing farmers and foresters today compared with the relatively simple production needs of the last century (National Research Council, 1996; Sampson & Hair, 1990). Agroforestry research experience in developing countries has shown it to be an effective means for interdisciplinary research teams to approach land use issues, in particular diagnosis and design methodologies (Murray & Bannister, 2004; Raintree, 1987, 1990). Similar work in Europe and North America now emphasizes the universality of ecological and socioeconomic issues, thereby blurring the distinction often made between domestic and international problems (Buck, 1995; Lovell et al., 2018). Agroforestry in developing countries is progressing with a combination of support from the research community (e.g., the World Agroforestry Center) and from the development assistance community (e.g., Heifer International) in promoting such practices. This is also beginning to unfold in the United States, in which both the underlying biophysical and socioeconomic science and broader knowledge infrastructure for agroforestry is beginning to reach critical mass, combining “bottom up, high touch” farmer‐to‐farmer approaches and “top down, high tech” scientific breakthroughs.

There is a growing interest in landscape level research on more sustainable land use systems that provide both income for farmers and ecological services for society (Lovell et al., 2010). Agroforestry concepts and applications provide ample opportunity to do just that (Brown et al., 2018; Palma et al., 2007a, 2007b). Research is now underway that demonstrates how those two objectives can be combined, providing opportunities for the scientific community to explore and identify new integrated land use options (Brown et al., 2018). Agroecology, eco‐agriculture, and regenerative agriculture principles integrate biophysical, social, and economic factors at the landscape level and represent promise for moving agroforestry to the landscape level (Altieri, Nicholls, & Montalba, 2017; Geertsema et al., 2016; LaCanne & Lundgren, 2018; Liebman & Schulte, 2015; Scherr & McNeely, 2007).

Domestic agroforestry falls along the continuum of agroecology and regenerative agriculture, presenting a need for new types of information—a challenge that breeds creativity and vitality within the research community. Regardless of the scope, domestic agroforestry offers many opportunities for professional development arising from new research projects, education and training programs, and cooperative ventures with public agencies and private organizations.