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Additional comments on chapter Applications of article Agroforestry (everything in bold is new):

Agroforestry represents a wide diversity in application and in practice. One listing includes over 50 distinct uses.[2] The 50 or so applications can be roughly classified under a few broad headings. There are visual similarities between practices in different categories. This is expected as categorization is based around the problems addressed (countering winds, high rainfall, harmful insects, etc.) and the overall economic constraints and objectives (labor and other inputs costs, yield requirements, etc.). The categories include :

• Hillside systems
• Parklands

• Shade systems
• Crop-over-tree systems
• Alley cropping
• Strip cropping
• Fauna-based systems
• Boundary systems
• Taungyas
• Physical support systems
• Agroforests
• Wind break and shelterbelt

Hillside systems

A well-studied example of an agroforestry hillside system is the Quesungual Slash and Mulch Agroforestry System (QSMAS) in the Lempira Department, Honduras. This region in Honduras has historically been used for slash and burn subsistence agriculture. Due to heavy seasonal floods, the exposed soil was washed away, leaving the now infertile barren soil exposed to the arid drought season. Farmed hillside sites had to be abandoned after several years and new forest was burned. As an alternative to this unsustainable system, the FAO helped introduce a system incorporating local knowledge consisting of the following steps:

1. Hillside secondary forest is thinned and pruned, ensuring that individual specific beneficial trees, especially nitrogen-fixing trees are left. They help reduce soil erosion, maintain soil moisture, provide shade and an input of nitrogen-rich organic matter in the form of litter.
2. Maize is planted in rows and left to grow. This is a traditional plant to Honduras which local farmer have a lot of previous knowledge about.
3. Maize is harvested from the dried plant and beans are simultaneously planted. The dead remaining maize stalks provide an ideal structure for the climbing bean plants. Bean is a nitrogen-fixing plant and therefore helps introduce more nitrogen to the system.
4. Pumpkin can also be planted during this time, its large leaves and horizontal growth providing additional shade and moisture retention for the soil. It does not compete with the beans for sunlight since these grow vertically on the maize stalks.
5. Every few seasons, the crop rotation is fulfilled by allowing cattle to graze in these areas, allowing grass to grow and the build-up of soil organic matter and nutrients in the soil. The cattle prevent total reforestation of the light agroforestry system by grazing around the individual trees and bring additional nutrients through their manure.
6. Maize is grown again and the cycle is repeated. Thus, the same location can be used for long-term agriculture, helping to reduce the pressure on natural forest ecosystems and preventing land-use change with high carbon losses.