Office of the Deputy Director General

Global Research at World Agroforestry Centre

The World Agroforestry Centre undertakes its science agenda through four main approaches:

• Accelerating the Use and Impact of Our Research
• Enhancing Science Quality
• Strengthening Partnerships
• Enhancing Operational Efficiency

The Centre’s vision is a rural transformation in the developing world where smallholder households strategically increase their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve their food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter, energy resources and environmental sustainability. The Center’s mission is to generate science-based knowledge about the diverse roles trees play in agricultural landscapes and to use its research to advance policies and practices to benefit the poor and the environment.

Agroforestry is uniquely suited to address both (1) the requirement for improved food security and increased biomass resources for energy and (2) the need to sustainably manage agricultural landscapes for the critical ecosystem services they provide. The strategy identifies a number of pathways through which agroforestry provides livelihood and environmental benefits by:

• enriching the asset base of poor households through farm-grown trees;
• maximizing the productivity of agroforestry systems and the complementarities trees contribute to the productivity of crops and livestock;
• improving the income of poor households by better linking them to markets;
• expanding the multifunctionality of agricultural landscapes by balancing increased productivity with the sustainable management of the natural resource base; and
• maintaining or enhancing the supply of ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes, particularly regarding water, soil health, carbon sequestration and biodiversity.