AGRO-FORESTRY NEEDS MORE INVESTMENT::Pranab Mukherjee

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• Agro-forestry requires innovative models to attract more investment as the sector is emerging as an environmentally sustainable food production system
• Agro-forestry offers a significant opening in resetting priorities on farm sustainability, Inadequate investment, lack of suitable extension strategies and weak market linkages compound the woes of this sector
• Agro-forestry development is hampered by lack of policy incentives, inadequate knowledge dissemination, legal constraints and poor coordination among its beneficiary sectors
• Integration of farm and forest crops would not only prevents further land degradation but also ensures timber and firewood availability to rural population
• Government has approved the National Agro-forestry Policy as the sector is playing an important role in maintaining the natural resource base and increasing the overall productivity in the rain fed areas in arid and semi-arid regions
• Focus of agro-forestry is important as ever increasing human and livestock population would place greater demands on natural resources amid challenges of climate change and degradation of water and land.