Agroforestry helps to conserve and protect natural resources by, for example, mitigating non-point source pollution, controlling soil erosion, and creating wildlife habitat. The benefits of agroforestry add up to a substantial improvement of the economic and resource sustainability of agriculture.
There are five widely recognized categories of agroforestry in the United States: Alley cropping means planting crops between rows of trees to provide income while the trees mature. The system can be designed to produce fruits, vegetables, grains, flowers, herbs, bioenergy feedstocks, and more.
The challenges of large-scale inventory efforts for agroforestry include the site characteristics of a typical agroforestry system. Small, linear patches of trees are common in windbreaks, riparian forest buffers, alley cropping and some silvopasture plantings.
Agroforestry systems can be advantageous over conventional agricultural and forest production methods. They can offer increased productivity; social, economic and environmental benefits, as well as greater diversity in the ecological goods and services provided. It is essential to note that these benefits are conditional on good farm management.