Tropical Agroforestry

Agroforestry is recognized as a sustainable land-use management in the tropics, as it provides environmental-friendly ecosystems; it also provides people with their every day need for food and cash. Since the recognition of agroforestry as a science, curricula have been developed for agroforestry programs for undergraduate and graduate trainings in Universities. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop and make available educational material. This textbook strives to provide up-to-date information on tropical agroforestry to serve as educational material in the tropical context. The authoritative textbook of Nair (1993) on agroforestry was published 18 years ago, and before the advent of tree domestication, an important agroforestry practice today. In addition, many other research activities, such as carbon sequestration and integrated pest management, have been included in the agroforestry agenda. This textbook is intended for agroforestry students, teachers, and practitioners.

Alain R. Atangana received a Ph. D. degree in forest genetics from Universite Laval, Canada. He researched participatory domestication of high-value multipurpose trees of the humid tropics of Africa using agroforestry techniques for more than ten years. He also investigated rooting ability in priority tree species for domestication using leafy stem cuttings. Alain has published in eleven peer-reviewed journals, including Food Chemistry, Tree Genetics and Genomes, Molecular Ecology Resources, Forest Ecology and Management, Canadian Journal of Forest Research, Forest Science and Agroforestry Systems.
Dr. Damase Khasa is a Professor and Program director of agroforestry and international forestry at the Faculte de foresterie, de geographie et de geomatique of Universite Laval, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta. He is a regular member of the Centre for Forest Research, the Canada Chair in forest and environmental genomics and the Institute of Integrative and Systems Biology. His research interests include: agroforestry; population and quantitative genetics; development of molecular markers for plant breeding and molecular ecology applications; plant symbioses and biotechnology; reclamation and intensive silviculture in the context of REDD+. Damase has published more than 90 papers in 54 peer-reviewed journals, including Molecular Ecology, Forest Ecology and Management, Forest Science, Tree Genetics and Genomes, Genome, Journal of Molecular Evolution, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Restoration Ecology, American Journal of Botany, World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology, Mycorrhiza, Microbial Ecology, Tree Physiology, Phytochemistry and Agroforestry Systems.
Dr. Scott Chang is a Professor in Forest Soils and Nutrient Dynamics in the Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Canada. Dr. Chang’s research interests are in forest soil processes (N and P cycling in particular), soil microbial ecology, carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions, application of 15N and 13C tracers in forest soils research, forest fertilization, tree nutrition, and agroforestry. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles. He is currently serving or has served as an associate editor/editorial board member for Canadian Journal of Soil Science, Journal of Soils and Sediments, Acta Ecologica Sinica (International Journal), Biology and Fertility of Soils, and Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis. He has co-edited several special issues in peer-reviewed journals. He is Past Chair of the Alberta Soil Science Workshop and the Forest, Range and Wildland Soils Division of the Soil Science Society of America.
Dr. Ir. Ann Degrande is a socio-economist, currently employed with the World Agroforestry Centre, based in Cameroon, studying adoption of innovations. She is developing mechanisms and processes of scaling-out/up of promising agroforestry technologies. She manages networks and partnerships with government, NGOs and CBOs in Central Africa. She has also extensive experience in training need assessment, development of training tools and material and has supervised many BSc, MSc and PhD students. Ann has provided technical leadership in numerous socio-economic and baseline surveys and is knowledgeable in project monitoring and evaluation.