Impacts of Public Policies and Farmer Preferences on Agroforestry Practices in Kerala, India

Abstract

Agroforestry systems are fundamental features of the rural landscape of the Indian state of Kerala. Yet these mixed species systems are increasingly being replaced by monocultures. This paper explores how public policies on land tenure, agriculture, forestry and tree growing on private lands have interacted with farmer preferences in shaping land use dynamics and agroforestry practices. It argues that not only is there no specific policy for agroforestry in Kerala, but also that the existing sectoral policies of land tenure, agriculture, and forestry contributed to promoting plantation crops, even among marginal farmers. Forest policies, which impose restrictions on timber extraction from farmers' fields under the garb of protecting natural forests, have often acted as a disincentive to maintaining tree-based mixed production systems on farmlands. The paper argues that public policies interact with farmers' preferences in determining land use practices.

Why do farmers plant more exotic than native trees? A case study from the Western Ghats, India

“…In Kodagu, G. robusta grows faster than at least three popular native timber species . In addition, the lack of tenurial rights over native trees grown by farmers in the Western Ghats has been cited as a possible reason for their preference of exotic species such as G. robusta (Ambinakudige and Sathish, 2009;Guillerme et al, 2011). Exotic species can be harvested freely to provide an instantaneous source of cash during financial emergencies, whereas native species require official permission to be harvested and this may not be granted under certain forms of land tenure such as "unredeemed land" where the government claims ownership rights over current and future native trees (see Box 1 for a description of local tenures and restrictions).…”

“…With respect to shade management G. robusta costs less for maintenance than the densely leaved, thickly branched and spreading native trees (farmers' information). Previous studies have highlighted the increasing dominance of G. robusta in CAFs of the Western Ghats Moppert 2000;Bali et al, 2007;Garcia et al, 2010), and some possible drivers of shade tree dynamics have been proposed (Ambinakudige and Sathish, 2009;Guillerme et al, 2011;Nath et al, 2011).…”

Improved Policies for Facilitating the Adoption of Agroforestry

“…The further development of this sector then led to conversion of traditional agroforests to oil palm. In India (Kerala), specific agroforestry policies do not exist to guide planning and the consequence is that existing land tenure, agriculture and forestry policies favor monospecific plantation crops (Guillerme et al, 2011). Mono-specific tree crop systems are further promoted by the development and testing of tree crop varieties under full sun conditions only, ignoring the potential for improved varieties in more multi-species agroforestry systems.…”

Complex regulatory frameworks governing private smallholder tree plantations in Gunungkidul District, Indonesia

“…Smallholders, in a number of tropical countries, have started to emphasize commercial goals in managing their forests (Emtage and Suh, 2004;Nawir et al, 2007a;Lasco 2008, Schuren andGuillerme et al, 2011;Byerlee, 2014). Smallholder timber has even started to enter the global timber markets (Manivong and Cramb, 2008;Rudel, 2009;Harada and Wiyono, 2014).…”

“…However, Sahide and Giessen (2015) point out that instead of producing a positive result for those concerned, regulations may be more of a constrain. Quite often, smallholder tree planting is highly regulated that disincentives for farmers to plant trees (see Weyerheuser et al, 2006;Guillerme et al, 2011;Foundjem-Tita et al, 2013). Governments even imposed a ban on tree planting on farmlands (Jagger and Pender, 2003).…”