Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
present there is a need to broaden the array of tree products delivered to global
markets by developing countries given the current overproduction and decreased
profitability of the few traditional tree crop commodities (Garrity 2004). Moreover,
smallholder tree production is still inadequately quantified hampering planning and
policy development.
1.5
Smallholder Tree Growing: Motivations
and Controlling Factors
Smallholder tree growing is often associated with multiple objectives and usages
and differ with large-scale industrial tree plantations in terms of motives for tree
species selection and protection, attitudes towards risk management and tree scar-
city, and approaches towards tree establishment, management, and marketing (e.g.,
Scherr 1995; Dewees 1995; Arnold and Dewees 1999).
The main hypothesis of this topic is that smallholder farmers will grow and
integrate a range of tree species in their land-use systems as a means of risk aver-
sion, livelihood diversification and response to restricted forest resources access,
and will effectively react to increases in demands for wood, fruit and other tree food
and fodder products, under conditions of secure land tenure and market access.
Yet, the rate of success of tree growing will depend on farmers' ability to
overcome a number of barriers farmers face when undertaking tree growing
activities. These barriers may be related, for example, to the availability of high-
quality planting materials, the production of quality tree products for the market,
the lack of tree production technologies, and the transport of farmer-grown indig-
enous tree products to markets due to policies intended to control illegal logging
from natural forests.
In addition, tree growing is conducted under different environmental conditions
and stages of land use intensification (e.g., Raintree and Warner 1986; Arnold and
Dewees 1995; Van Noordwijk et al. 1997). Hence, a distinction can be made
between tree growing in forest-rich and in forest-deprived areas (Fig. 1.1). In the
former case, conditions of relatively low population density and locally abundant
natural forests prevail. Tree management is practiced but primarily in a rather pas-
sive way. For example selective forest species may be logged and replaced with
other valuable tree species, gradually converting natural forests into agroforests,
village forests or jungle tea forests, as is evident from countries such as Lao PDR
and Indonesia. In forest-deprived areas, population densities are usually rather high
and natural forests have been cleared through logging and 'slash and burn'. Trees
are established on farms and field boundaries through intercropping and line plant-
ing, like on Imperata -infested grasslands in the Philippines, Indonesia, India and
elsewhere. Tree planting is practiced under intensive land use pressure and likely to
be a more difficult undertaking compared to tree-growing in forest-rich areas i.e.,
testing more often than not farmers' patience and endurance. Eventually, it may lead
to farmers deciding to move out of these areas particularly after experiencing a
serious decline in crop yields due to ongoing degradation. (Noordwijk, Chapter 20,
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