Ecological and socio-economic evaluation of dryland agroforestry systems in East Africa

Drylands typically suffer from sustainable land use challenges that have rapidly increased in the recent past. Drylands are face with a number of constraints including, among others, climate variability, natural resources degradation, declining agricultural productivity and high population that are exacerbating retrogressive development pathways. In order to sustainably address these challenges, sustainable dryland land use and management is an important imperative. Agroforestry has been fronted as a critical entry point for dryland sustainability owing to its dynamic and ecologically based natural resources management approach that allows for the integration of trees on farms and diversifies and sustains production in agricultural landscapes. Well designed and implemented dryland agroforestry provides leverage points to alleviating poverty, providing food security and livelihoods, maintaining healthy ecosystems, conserving biodiversity and mitigating greenhouse gas effects through carbon sequestration. This paper discusses advances in agroforestry systems in terms of ecological and socioeconomic aspects including classification of agroforestry systems, agroforestry in East Africa, importance of agroforestry in drylands, and socio-economic factors affecting its adoption and agroforestry potential for carbon sequestration.