Exploring the Agroforestry Adoption Gap: Financial and Socioeconomics of Litchi-Based Agroforestry by Smallholders in Rajshahi (Bangladesh) - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 231

Very favorable results of financial analysis of agroforestry as in our case may
lead governments to think that the diffusion of agroforestry can be 'left to the mar-
ket'. Although market parties naturally have a great role to play, our case study
shows that they cannot work alone, even if agroforestry has already been introduced
by a project. If agroforestry is to become a real option for poor farmers, institutional
structures need crucial attention.
The necessary quantum leaps of agroforestry may be blocked in a myriad of
institutional ways. For instance, tenure rules may be such that landlords tend to
prohibit perennial crops; government credit may be lacking and middlemen credit
available only for specific seasonal crops as collateral; agroforestry extension may
be left to special projects instead of being taken up in the regular package of gov-
ernment attention and extension; agroforestry may be propagated with watershed or
biodiversity arguments to such extent that farmers distrust the financial messages,
and so on. These institutional issues need to be analyzed and rectified before field
projects are even considered. Field projects might, after all, not even be necessary
if the institutional structures are put right.
In summary, our case strengthens a central theme in Kumar's (2006) review
study of Asian agroforestry. Agroforestry, if financially viable and culturally
embedded as it is in our case and will be in many others, should be propagated not
by temporary projects and neither by leaving it all to the market but by supportive,
permanent and government-backed institutions. Agroforestry action should then
aim first to get these institutions in place, not the trees.
Acknowledgements The authors are thankful for the hospitality of the farmers at the site where
field survey was undertaken, who shared their time, thoughts, concerns and even scarce food with
us. We also appreciate the valuable advice of K.M.G. Rabbani Basunia, Mia Md. Nuruzzaman and
Md. Din-Amin.
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