Tropical Homegardens : A Time-Tested Example of Sustainable Agroforestry

Homegardens are integrated tree - crop - animal production systems, often in small parcels of land surrounding homesteads, and primarily found in tropical environments. These agroforestry systems, developed and nurtured by farmers through generations of innovation and experiment, are often cited as the epitome of sustainability, yet have been long neglected by the scientific community. Today, however, these age-old systems are receiving increasing attention owing to their perceived potential to mitigate environmental problems such as loss of biodiversity and rising levels of atmospheric CO₂, while providing significant economic gains, as well as food and nutritional security to their owners. This multi-authored volume contains peer-reviewed chapters from the worlds leading researchers and professionals in this topic. It summarizes the current state of knowledge on homegarden systems, with a view to using this knowledge as a basis for improving both homegardens and other similar multistrata agroforestry systems.