Climate change is increasingly experienced in Southeast Asia in the form of rising temperatures, longer periods of hot weather, prolonged droughts, more powerful typhoons, and extreme rainfall. Farmers in many parts of the region are facing degradation of arable land, shortage of water, increased occurrence of pests and diseases, declines in crop and livestock productivity and loss of yields. Consequently, their income and food security has been severely threatened. Accordingly, climate-resilient land-use practices have become a critical topic. Agroforestry - the practice of deliberately integrating trees with crops and/or animals on the same land unit to provide a range of agricultural and forestry products and environmental services - can help to increase the resilience of farmlands and whole landscapes to climatic stresses. However, lack of knowledge and technical skills to design, establish and manage agroforestry restricts practitioners from undertaking such climate-resilient practices. This guide has been developed to support the continuous learning and capacity building of agroforestry practitioners. It provides a set of technical instructions and tools for assisting farmers to design, establish and manage on-farm agroforestry practices that are resilient to climate stresses and extreme events. |
