According to a University of Illinois study, trees may be part of the solution to reducing poverty in rural areas and maintain biodiversity.
“Trees on farms in Africa often fall through the cracks — they’re not forests and they’re not agriculture,” said U of I’s Daniel Miller, who studies environmental politics and policy.
“In our study, we found about one third of all rural farmers across five study countries have and grow trees on their farms. Among those farmers, trees on farms contribute 17 percent to their annual household income, so they’re very important for generating economic benefits for households.”
Miller’s study used satellite images showing forest cover and nationally representative household-level data gathered from in-person interviews in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.
One thing he learned is that there are more trees on agricultural lands than expected — about a third to more than half of the rural households report having on-farm trees.
“Overall, the results suggest that trees on farms should be given more attention in agriculture, food security and poverty-related policy debates in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly as the need to tackle climate change becomes more urgent.”
source: agrinews-pubs.com