Agroforestry – the practice of growing trees and crops in interacting combinations – is recognized the world over as an integrated approach to sustainable land-use. Agroforestry systems, being multifunctional, facilitate not only the production of food and wood products but also provide a variety of ecosystem services such as climate-change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and soil quality improvement. This course teaches a broad overview of the most current research and best practices in global agroforestry.
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction: A Synthesis of Scientific Developments in Agroforestry
- Section 1 presents an overview of the history of scientific developments in agroforestry.
- Definitions, Concepts, Classification and Global Distribution
- Section 2 investigates how we define and categorize agroforestry methods
- Agroforestry Systems in the Tropics and Subtropics
- Section 3 is an exploration of agroforestry topics for the tropics and subtropics
- Agroforestry Systems in the Temperate Zones
- Section 4 is an exploration of agroforestry topics for the temperate zones
- Agroforestry (Tree) Species and Their Productivity
- Agroforestry tree species and their improvement, uses and products.
- Soil Management and Agroforestry
- Proper soil management based on understanding the nature and property of soils is critical to the success of any land-use system.
- Climate Change, Carbon Sequestration and Agroforestry Systems
- The role of agroforestry systems in climate change mitigation.
- Ecosystem Services of Agroforestry
- A review of the many additional ecosystem services potentially provided by agroforestry systems.
- Food Security, Sustainable Development Goals and Agroforestry
- Agroforestry's roles in sustainable development and global food security efforts.
Taught by
Jennifer Vogel, Online Programs Coordinator
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2.0 rating, based on 1 Class Central review
4.8 rating at Coursera based on 25 ratings
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Nyssa FarnsworthSometimes the instructors are hard to understand, their accents are very thick. At least one of the statistical research items they cited is incorrect (percentage of world's food produced by smallholder farms).
