AGROFORESTRY FOR MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS

Climate change resulting in shift of temperature and weather pattern over a longer period of time.These changes might have occurred naturally, for instance through variations in the solar cycle.However, human activities like burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, emission of greenhouse gases, pollution and ever-increasing population are the primary cause of climate change.Nearly, 30% of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are the cause of agriculture, which is also the main driver of 80% of tropical deforestation.Agroforestry is a land use management systems and technology where woody perennial plants (tree, shrubs, herbs etc.) are deliberately introduced in the same land management practices, along with the agricultural crops and/or livestock, in a spatial temporal sequence (ICRAF, 1982).It is a robust and resilient sustainable farming technique that could successfully address the climatic catastrophe.Planting of the appropriate plant in the appropriate cropping system can aid in the alleviation of harmful effects of climate change.Permanent tree covers along with varied ecological niches in agroforestry system can act as buffer in climate unpredictability.Mitigation of climate change mainly takes the form of carbon sequestration, e.g.biomass, either above or below ground.Adaptation to climate change is very much a function of soil organic matter content and diversified, multispecies cropping technologies and agroforestry performs well on the above criteria and thus is a preferred approach to develop synergies between adaptation and mitigation.Agroforestry enhance the uptake of CO 2 or reduce its emission and has the potential to remove a significant amount of CO 2 from the atmosphere, if the trees are harvested, accompanied by replanting of same and/or other area, and sequestered carbon is locked through non-destructive use of such wood.Agroforestry systems are promising land use system to increase aboveground and belowground C stock to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.