Training Manual for Applied Agroforestry Practices

Created with SARE support
Michael Gold, Mihaela Cernusca & Michelle Hall, Eds. | 2013 | 366 pages

Agroforestry practices help landowners diversify products, markets, and farm income; improve soil and water quality; and reduce erosion, non-point source pollution, and flood damage. The integrated agroforestry practices enhance land and aquatic habitats for fish and wildlife and improve biodiversity while sustaining land resources for generations to come.

Printed in 2013 and revised in 2018 to coincide with the inaugural Agroforestry Academy, this version of the Training Manual for Applied Agroforestry Practices is designed for natural resource professionals and landowners. It includes worksheets and exercises for use as educational tools. The manual features descriptions of establishing and managing the five agroforestry practices (riparian and upland forest buffers, windbreaks, alley cropping, silvopasture, and forest farming), plus success stories of Midwestern landowners utilizing agroforestry on agricultural and forested lands.

This manual helps to explain agroforestry practices and their applications. Additionally, the manual is designed to assist in the decision process so that, when established or managed, the agroforestry practice is most effective at achieving the desired objectives.

Farmers should look at the Handbook for Agroforestry Planning and Design to identify what agroforestry products can grow on your land, which of these products you can sell profitably, and how to develop basic business and marketing strategies. 

Access this guide on the Center for Agroforestry website.

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This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.