THE DEVELOPMENT OF TREE CROPS AND AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS

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Abstract
Trees have not received as much attention as herbaceous plants as far as cultivation is concerned and there are many under-utilised trees with considerable potential for cultivation in fragile tropical and mediterranean ecosystems particularly. Various multiple land use systems are suggested as a means of resolving the traditional conflict between agriculture and forestry and of increasing production of both wood and food in a sustainable manner. Most of these systems come under the heading of agroforestry. Current difficulties in the nomenclature of agroforestry systems are mentioned and a functional classification is given. Trees used in afforestation schemes are increasingly chosen according to the multiplicity of crops and functions obtainable from them, e.g. food, fodder and fuel. Similarly any crop may be utilised at a number of levels according to need, available capital and available technology, e.g. carob pods may be processed into fodder, chocolate, alcohol, or fungal protein. Tropical deforestation is eating away at the genetic diversity of potentially economic tree crops, and so their future development is inseparable from conservation of forest genetic resources. The paper concludes with a list of subject headings for papers to be published in future issues of The International Tree Crops Journal.

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