Agroforestry and Its Services for Soil Management and Sustainability

Abstract

Agroforestry systems (AFs) ensure greater biodiversity that intensifies ecosystem services in tangible and intangible ways. Accounting ecosystem services through well-managed agroforestry systems are other important aspects of scientificstudies nowadays. AFs are an integration of trees with crops, and it also includes animal farming with the intensive land management system. In the twenty-first century, land management is one of the major challenges, and AFs have the vast potential to address and recognize these challenges as well as facilitate various services in a sustainable manner. Soil is the largest natural resource that sustains billions of life and supports a variety of flora and fauna. Agroforestry (AF) plays important role in soil health management that ensures ecological stability and environmental sustainability. In AFs interaction between aboveground and belowground components takes place which helps in improving the soil quality and provides shelter to many biota and soil organisms. Through AF soil management and conservation can be done and also the protection of agroecosystem at the regional and local level. The practices of sustainable soil management (SSM)make the pave for achieving the goal of sustainability. Thus, scientific AFs promise the SSM that enhances biodiversity through intensification of ecosystem services at the global scale. Soil fertility enhancement, better nutrient cycling, and higher resource use efficiency along with carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation are important services provided by AFs. AF also reduces carbon and environmental footprints by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and its sequestration and storage into both plants and soils. Thus, an effective policy and good governance are more important in achieving sustainability through adopting better scientific AFs in the tropical world. A future roadmap must be laid onadopting location-specific AF models for maintaining soil health and quality for a better sustainable world. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.