Agroforestry

Agroforestry: What's It All About?

Agroforestry is the intentional combination of agriculture and forestry to create productive and sustainable land use practices. These practices take advantage of the interactive benefits from growing trees and shrubs together with crops and/or livestock. Agroforestry has its roots in Indigenous food production systems around the world. In regions with more temperate climates, agroforestry is separated into six distinct but related practices. The six practices are windbreaks, riparian forest buffers, alley cropping, silvopasture, forest farming, and urban agroforestry.

6 Types of Agroforestry Practices

To learn more about each agroforestry practice, click on the section title (ie: Windbreaks)

Windbreaks

Windbreaks are linear plantings of trees and shrubs designed to provide economic, environmental and community benefits. The primary purpose of most windbreaks is to slow the wind which creates a more beneficial condition for soils, crops, livestock, wildlife, and people.

Riparian buffers

A riparian forest buffer is an area adjacent to a stream, lake, or wetland that contains a combination of trees, shrubs, and/or other perennial plants and is managed differently from the surrounding landscape, primarily to provide conservation benefits.

Alley cropping

Alley cropping is defined as the planting of rows of trees and/or shrubs to create alleys within which agricultural or horticultural crops are produced. The trees may include valuable hardwood veneer or lumber species; fruit, nut or other specialty crop trees/shrubs; or desirable softwood species for wood fiber production.

Silvopasture

Silvopasture is the deliberate integration of trees and grazing livestock operations on the same land. These systems are intensively managed for both forest products and forage, providing both short- and long-term income sources.

Forest farming

Forest farming is the cultivation of high-value crops under the protection of a managed tree canopy. In some parts of the world, this is called multi-story cropping and when used on a small scale in the tropics it is sometimes called home gardening. It is not just recreational harvesting or wild harvesting of native understory woodland plants without management; management is an essential part of forest farming. This approach to crop production intentionally uses both vertical space and the interactions of the plants and microclimate. 

See the forest farming page HERE.

Urban Agroforestry

Urban agroforestry can take many forms. Some of the most common applications are food forests, which are also often called edible forest gardens, multifunctional woody polycultures, or edible perennial landscapes. Food forests consist of multiple vertical layers of woody and nonwoody vegetation that mimic the multiple layers of forest ecosystems. Most plants in food forests are either edible, medicinal, or ornamental and are planted to satisfy human needs, but plants that provide food and habitat to wildlife can also be utilized.

General Resources: Learn More About Agroforestry

Cornell Small Farms Agroforestry Webinars

FREE Silvopasture Guidelines to Landowners Experiencing Historical and Present-day Land Disenfranchisement

FREE Agroforestry Courses by the Savanna Institute

FREE Book: Agroforestry; A Primer

FREE PDF: Perennial Pathways; Planting Tree Crops by The Savanna Institute

FREE Infosheets: Understanding Agroforestry by The Savanna Institute

• English Version
• Spanish Version

University of Missouri Agroforestry Resources

• The Agroforestry Podcast
• Technical Guides

Last updated May 21, 2025