This document discusses how agroforestry can help smallholder farmers adapt to and mitigate climate change effects. It finds that agroforestry systems can buffer farmers against increasing temperatures, variable precipitation, and extreme weather by regulating microclimates and conserving water and soil resources. Agroforestry also sequesters carbon in trees and soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Implementing agroforestry can thus increase farmers' resilience to climate change while also providing livelihood and mitigation co-benefits.

1. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation
options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to
climate change
Dr. Brenda B. Lin
Research Scientist
October 27, 2011

2. Agriculture and climate change effects
• Temperature
• Maximums and
minimums
• Seasonal shifts
• Precipitation
• Extreme events
• Flooding
• Drought
Fisher et al, 2005; Parry and Livermore, 2005
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

3. Agricultural Vulnerabilities
Rice - decreased seed
weight during El Niño
drought seasons
Wheat - heat pulses
applied to wheat during
anthesis reduced
harvest
Maize - reduced pollen
viability above 36 °C
Lansigan et al, 2000; Porter and Semenov, 2005; Wollenweber et al, 2003
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

4. Smallholder farmers: Exposure and Sensitivity
• Agricultural based economies with few other livelihood
strategies
• Reliance on ecosystem services, natural resources -
water, soil, air
• Small family farms have little capital to invest in
adaptation strategies
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

5. Progressive adaptation
Transformation from landuse or
distribution change
Benefit from
New products such as
adaptation
ecosystem services
Climate ready germplasm
Climate-sensitive precision-agric
Diversification and risk management
Varieties, planting times, spacing
Stubble, water, nutrient and canopy
management etc
Climate change Howden et al. 2010
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

6. Agroforestry Systems: Adaptation and Mitigation
Schoeneberger 2009
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

7. Literature Survey
What are the ways in which agroforestry can
increase farmer resilience to climate change
effects?
• Web of Knowledge search
• “agfor* AND climate change”
• Two main categories of agroforestry implementation
for smallholder farmers
• Adaptation tool to protect against climate change
• Mitigation tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

8. Adaptation
Examples from the coffee agroforestry system
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

9. Variation in Coffee Agroforestry
4
Height (m)
High Shade (HS) 0
Traditional Polyculture
Coffee grown under natural canopy, with
other commercially productive trees
Medium Shade (MS)
Height
Commercial Polyculture 15
Coffee grown only with
commercially productive trees (no
natural canopy)
Height
Low Shade (LS)
Shaded Monoculture
Coffee grown under one species of
shade tree
Moguel and Toledo, 1999
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

10. Buffering against Temperature variability
Dry Season Wet Season
30 30
Shade cover
27 27
Temperature (°C)
High
24 24 Medium
Low
21 21
18 18
15 15
0 6 12 18 0 6 12 18
Time Lin, 2007
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

11. Buffering against water loss
150
Water Loss through Evapotranspiration
Soil Evaporation c
Water Loss through Evapotranspiration
150
Plant Transpiration
Soil Evaporation
Plant Transpiration
120
120 b
(g H2O m-2 h -1)
(g H2O m h )
-1
90
90 a
-2
60
60
30
30
0
0 High Medium Low
Shade Shade Shade
High Shade Medium Shade
High Shade Medium Shade Low Shade
Low Shade
Lin, 2010
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

12. Buffering against extreme events: storms and winds
• In Chiapas – economic
damages estimated 3 billion
in the agricultural sector
• 20% of coffee harvest lost
worth $US 4 million in the
Pacific region of Guatemala
Tropical Storm Stan:
Oct 1-5, 2005
Philpott et al, 2008
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

13. Buffering against extreme events: storms and winds
Greater farming intensity led to greater farm
area affected by landslides
y=1.64x-0.8312
R2 = 0.0827
P=0.014
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

14. Mitigation
Carbon sequestration potential
Verchot et al, 2006
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

15. Carbon sequestration potential of agroforestry
• Trees
• Agroforestry systems maintains 22 times more carbon stored
aboveground when compared to traditional maize
• Soil organic matter
• Improved fallow agroforestry
found to increase topsoil C
stocks up to 1.6 Mg C/ha/yr
above continuous maize
cropping
• Sequestration potential
• 95 Mg C ha-1 median value
for the agroforestry system
as a whole
Soto Pinto et al, 2010; Montagnini and Nair, 2004; Albrecht and Kandji, 2003
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

16. Payments for carbon sequestration
• Eligible for
afforestation/reforestation (A/R)
activity in the Clean
Development Mechanism
• REDD – reduce
carbon emissions
from deforestation
and forest
degradation
• At $100 per MgC, carbon
sequestration in agroforestry
systems could potentially raise
per capita incomes up to 15%
Antle et al., 2007
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

17. Curbing GHG emissions
• Less fertilizer use because of nutrient cycling
• Mitigate N2O and CO2 emissions from soils and
increase CH4 sink strength
Land-use system N 2O emissions CH 4 flux CO 2 emissions Source
-2 -1 -2 -1 -2 -1
(µg N m h ) (µg C m h ) (µg C m h )
Cropping System High input cropping 31.2 15.2 84 Palm et al (2002)
Low input cropping 15.6 -17.5 66.6 Palm et al (2002)
Cassava/Imperata 7.1 -14.8 Tsurata et al (2000)
Agroforestry Shifting cultivation 8.6 -23.5 67.5 Palm et al (2002)
Systems Multistrate agroforestry 5.8 -23.3 32.6 Palm et al (2002)
Peach Palm 9.8 -17 66.4 Palm et al (2002)
Jungle rubber 1 -12 Tsurata et al (2000)
Rubber agroforests 12.5 -27.5 Tsurata et al (2000)
Forests Forest 9.2 -28.8 73.3 Palm et al (2002)
Forest 5 -31 Tsurata et al (2000)
Logged Forest 7.2 -38.2 Tsurata et al (2000)
Adapted from Mutuo et al 2005
Palm et al 2002; Mutuo et al, 2005
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

18. Conclusions
Benefits for Smallscale Farmers
• Adaptation to climate change effects
• Temperature
• Precipitation
• Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions
• Carbon sequestration
• Decreased GHG loss and increased sinks
• Increase on farm profitability by
• Protecting crop production from climate change and potential
secondary effects
• Increasing crop diversification and products produced
including carbon sequestration
CSIRO. Agroforestry adaptation and mitigation options for smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate change

19. CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship
Brenda B. Lin
Research Scientist
Phone: 03 9239 4476
Email: Brenda.Lin@csiro.au
Web: www.csiro.au/org/ClimateAdaptationFlagship.html
Thank you
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