Abstract

Agroforestry is considered a subsistence system that balances the urgent need for food and income of small scale farmers with restoration and conservation of ecosystem services, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Vi Agroforestry Program aims to implement agroforestry as a means to alleviate poverty and increase resilience among the poorest smallholders. After seven years, the Vi Agroforestry Project in the Mara Region of Tanzania had an inter-village variation in the proportion of households with tangible surviving agroforestry trees ranging from 10%-90%. Using a multiple methods approach, this variation was analysed in relation to changes and differences among administrative districts and project zones regarding perceived barriers to agroforestry adoption, project interventions, governance and the chronology of the process. In districts and zones where collaboration among the project staff, government counterparts and other stakeholders had been established at multiple levels, more agroforestry trees survived and a larger proportion of households practiced agroforestry. The established collaboration made it possible to discover and consider opportunities and barriers to agroforestry development such as diverse stakeholder interests and perceptions. As a result, potential conflicts could be avoided and socially robust solutions developed, adapted and integrated into the local subsistence systems.

Keywords

dissemination of agroforestry; adaptation; technology adoption; poverty alleviation; collaboration; social learning; sustainable development; farming system; participant observation

Published in

Sustainability
2013, Volume: 5, number: 12, pages: 5195-5224
Publisher: MDPI AG

SLU Authors

• Johansson, Karl-Erik

  • School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Axelsson, Robert

  • School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels


UKÄ Subject classification

Sociology (excluding Social work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Agricultural Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su5125195

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/56137