Livelihood

systems

The extent and management of tree and forest cover on farms and across
landscapes impacts the resilience, productivity and income of smallholders.
This research theme harnesses the transformative power of trees, through
developing and promoting innovations in management, markets and policies to
reduce poverty, and increases the food and nutrition security of smallholders.
Better tree management contributes to these livelihood goals while protecting
the environment, enhancing natural capital and strengthening people’s capacity
to adapt to climate change.
 Photo by A. Mamo/ICRAF
How can trees enhance
smallholder livelihoods?
The area of livelihoods is the starting point for this For example, on-farm tree fodder increases livestock
research theme because smallholders make decisions productivity while reducing labor required for collection,
about how to manage farms, considering all their freeing time for people to invest in other paths to
constraints and opportunities, including those unrelated intensification. Such knock-on effects of better tree
to trees and forests. In addition to direct contributions management are important. They include trees restoring and
to diet and income from timber, coffee, cocoa, rubber, maintaining soil health through fostering higher abundance
oil palm, fruits, nuts and other products, much of and activity of beneficial soil organisms, as well as contributing
the contribution that trees make is through system to soil fertility through tightening nutrient and water cycles,
intensification, involving interactions with other livelihood improving nutrient and water use efficiency and thereby
components (Figure 1). closing yield gaps of food crops.

2 | Livelihood systems
 forest
Tree/ forest
products
(including food) on-farm

Soil health Income

Productivity
Increased use of per unit of
agrobiodiversity Soil fertility land and water
Trees/ forests Food
and niches for
in smallholder
conservation of m
an traction and
systems Water ur grazing
natural e livestock products
biodiversity Nutrition
Shade Livestock
productivity
Fodder e
nur
ma Cooking and
Fuel heating

Labor Other livelihood

productivity opportunities

Figure 1. How trees and forests enhance smallholder livelihoods

Overcoming constraints to
people benefitting from trees
Trees are productive, act as capital and provide other lag between investment in establishing trees and returns,
ecosystem services. They make livelihoods more sustainable regulated or underdeveloped markets for tree products, and
when integrated in agricultural production systems. FTA’s policies that restrict what people can do with trees, because
research seeks to alleviate the constraints that people face of forest legislation affecting land and tree tenure and usufruct
in benefiting from tree and forest resources, even on their rights. This is why this research theme addresses the enabling
own land. These include agronomic constraints, the time environment in tandem with technology development.

Key research focus

FTA’s research on livelihood systems focuses on how to: • Develop markets for agroforestry products so that
• Manage trees in fields, farms and agricultural landscapes smallholders capture more value from what they produce
to meet livelihood needs, including deploying appropriate • Formulate policies that enable people to benefit from
germplasm and managing it to deliver desirable outcomes, managing tree cover on their farms and collectively
which includes developing options that use trees to in forests
improve and sustain soil health, restore land and avoid • Bridge the time between investment in trees, and returns
further degradation from them, using novel public and private financing options

Livelihood systems | 3
FTA research
on livelihood systems
This theme is organized in five clusters of research activity that address key questions, as follows.

Systems analysis, synthesis and scaling

How can key tipping points in adoption of forest and of principles for matching options to the fine-scale variation
agroforestry innovations leading to transformation of in context? How do contextual factors (biophysical and
livelihoods be determined for food security and poverty socioeconomic) affect the suitability of different types of
reduction outcomes? What tools and methods will most innovations? How can new scientific evidence be most
efficiently, effectively and equitably support the generation effectively curated to support policy development and
and selection of diverse and inclusive options that improve the negotiation among stakeholders to manage the impacts of
use of trees and forests by smallholders and codevelopment land-use change on ecosystem service provision?

Production and marketing of food, fuel, timber and non-timber forest

products (NTFPs)
How can barriers be removed to smallholders accessing are most suitable and what interventions are most cost
markets for tree and forest products, allowing them to effective to realize these outcomes? How can smallholders
capture more of their value, especially for people who are profitably produce and market quality timber on a small scale?
socially or economically marginalized (including women How do different approaches to forest management impact
and young people)? What types of products and markets smallholder livelihoods at the forest margin?

Tree-crop commodities (cocoa, coffee, tea, oil palm and rubber)

FTA posits that the incorporation and management of How can smallholder tree-crop commodity production
companion trees in cocoa and coffee production systems, systems be sustainably managed in the face of climate
alongside appropriate fertilizer and pest control, can change, price volatility, declining yield and soil fertility
increase and sustain productivity of existing stands and following forest conversion, coupled with constraints
buffer against climate change; that rubber and oil palm on opening new forest areas, and those imposed
production systems can be made more sustainable through by the dynamics of migration? What is required in
intercropping; and that smallholders can derive higher terms of an enabling environment to switch from
income from product sales through improved certification unsustainable monocultures to more diverse and
schemes and by exploiting specialist market niches, which resilient production practices?
lead to the following key research questions.

4 | Livelihood systems
 Photo by Y. Nofiandi/ICRAF/FTA
Trees on agricultural land supporting land restoration and sustainable
intensification
What are the optimum levels of tree density and diversity in in woodlots, rather than more diverse options? What is the
different contexts required to increase total factor productivity relationship between tree cover (density and diversity) and soil
of smallholder livelihood systems while conferring resilience health and where are there tradeoffs and synergies between
at farm and landscape scales? How can the desired tree production goals and the provision of other ecosystem
density and diversity be most effectively promoted, given a services? How can key tipping points for land degradation
widespread history of removing trees from agricultural land, be recognized, and used to avoid further degradation and
conflicts between grazing animals and tree regeneration and prioritize restoration?
promoting of a few, largely exotic tree species on farms and

Silvopastoral systems
This research theme’s overarching hypothesis is that the
establishment and better management of tree cover on
pastures can contribute simultaneously to higher livestock
productivity, animal welfare and biodiversity conservation,
as well as restoring degraded rangelands and avoiding
future degradation. This leads to the following key
research questions. What is the relationship between tree
cover and pasture and animal productivity and welfare
in silvopastoral systems? Where are there tradeoffs and
synergies between production goals and the provision of
other ecosystem services?

 wandan woman Clemence shows bank account and family insurance

R
certificates that were paid for with proceeds of tree tomato sales.
Photo by A. Mamo/ICRAF

Livelihood systems | 5
How will FTA’s research create
change?
This research theme’s theory of change rests on three in, and benefit more from, using tree and forest resources
interrelated assumptions that: the current management of if policies, legislation and institutions affecting their use are
tree cover on farms, in pastures and at forest margins can reformed to enable this, including financing investment to
be improved, contributing to sustainable intensification of establish trees.
livelihoods through higher total factor productivity, leading
to higher food and nutrition security; smallholders and Through embedding some of its research within the scaling-up
particularly women can achieve higher returns from tree and process, this research theme simultaneously accelerates
forest products by better marketing and processing, thereby impact for development partners while enabling research
increasing their income; and people (especially women, young to be conducted at the scale at which FTA aspires to make
people and other marginalized groups) can participate more impact (Figure 2).

Case study 1: Trees for all reasons

FTA’s research in development paradigm, supported by the with buyers, and overcoming diseases and low prices through
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), collective rearing and marketing of local chickens together
the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)/EU with soya and solwezi beans. Farmers in Tanzania and
and the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), Ethiopia are trying out a raft of sustainable intensification and
works with thousands of farmers to evaluate the performance land-restoration options.
of agroforestry options across contexts in Africa.
Demonstration of the practical value of agroforestry from
In Rwanda, wooden stakes from farm trees have doubled the this research is leading to policy change. In Ethiopia, a
yield of climbing beans, green manure from nitrogen-fixing national agroforestry scaling platform has been set up and
Alnus acuminata raised potato yield more than 50 percent, the government has committed to turning over 33,000 state
while income from tree tomato has helped people transition nurseries to entrepreneurial youth and women’s groups along
out of poverty, for instance, enabling women to open bank the rural resource center model pioneered by FTA. The Food
accounts and purchase health insurance for their families and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has used FTA
for the first time. Farmers adopting novel soil and water research to inform the development of national agroforestry
conservation methods in Kenya obtained maize yields over policy in Rwanda and FTA is engaged with Vi-Agroforestry
the last two seasons when most maize failed due to drought, and farmers’ groups in informing policy development through
while innovation platforms in Zambia are connecting farmers parliamentary processes in Uganda.

Case study 2: The paternoster principle: Scaling up by coupling bottom-up

and top-down approaches
Much of northwest Vietnam comprises steep slopes with multistrata contour planting options than research and
maize monocultures that are prone to high rates of soil erosion development organizations in Vietnam had considered. These
and land degradation, leading to decline and collapse of were brought together in a series of exemplar landscapes
farm income. where more than one-third of farmers in a contiguous area
were encouraged to increase tree cover on their farms,
ACIAR-funded FTA research on market-based agroforestry, creating visible landscape-scale impact.
which can increase farm income and conserve soil through
contour planting of high-value trees, has identified the need There are now six such landscapes involving co-investment
to couple ‘bottom up’ participatory development of feasible from provincial governments that have led to profound
options with ‘top down’ incentives and government sanction changes in advice and incentives available to farmers. In
to promote wide-scale adoption of agroforestry practices. This Dien Bien, for example, policy changes at provincial level
is known as the “paternoster principle” after the paternoster now provide monetary incentives for farmers to adopt
elevator, a continuously moving open-sided conveyer with no contour planting and to establish stands of son tra (an
doors or buttons, where compartments going up are linked in indigenous fruit tree) in some districts. Domestication of
a cycle to those coming down. Strategic co-investment from son tra has gone hand in hand with growing the market
FTA brought practices like ox-back contour planting from through developing novel, non-perishable products
the Philippines to Vietnam and enabled the ACIAR project from the fruit (tea and extracts), now taken up by a food
to respond to farmers’ interest in trying out more diverse, exporting company.

6 | Livelihood systems
For series of
scaling domains Assessment of management, Scaling up
comprising the market and policy options in Simple to use tools to
refined options
colocated relation to the contexts in match options to sites
place-based which they work (soils, climate, and circumstances
research livelihood system, resource across each scaling
portfolio availability, institutions) domain
Scaling out
refined Application of
Characterize
characterization understanding about
variation in context
cost-effective options for
across each
different contexts
Priorities for scaling domain
beyond the current
upstream research scaling domain
to address
contexts for which Best-fit options, Understanding of
no options are combinations and Systems suitability of range of
currently suitable knowledge gaps modelling options in relation to
context – and the Global comparative
Planned comparisons cost effectiveness understanding of how
n
io
of different to improve livelihood
at
embedded in scaling up
id

combinations systems, emergent

l

by development
va

partners through nested from analysis across

Controlled multiple locations in
scale, cross sector
trials in specific the place-based
innovation platforms
contexts research portfolio that
can be applied in
Participatory monitoring geographies beyond it
Widespread (large)
trials across range and evaluation system
in context for the performance
of options

Figure 2. The research in development paradigm to generate

best-fit options and suitability domains at scale

Who does FTA work with?

The research theme’s partnership strategy involves three soil biota; as well as many other universities — the Swedish
main types: donors, upstream research providers and University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU); Cornell, Columbia,
the users of FTA’s research outputs. Partnerships with the Colorado and Montana in the US; Adelaide and Southern
private sector cut across these as they may involve funding, Cross in Australia; Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture
collaboration in cutting-edge science and the use of and Technology (JKUAT) in Kenya; Makerere in Uganda; and
research outputs. By engaging with development partners, Mekele, Hawassa and Wondo Genet in Ethiopia.
the private sector and policy makers from the outset, FTA
ensures that its outputs address important issues in a form Private sector partners include Mars on cocoa in Côte
suitable for uptake and maximize the likelihood of generating d’Ivoire; Natura on oil palm diversification in Brazil; and small
outcomes and impact. and medium enterprises that codevelop novel products (e.g.
nonperishable forms of Docynia indica in Vietnam).
Upstream partners include: Simulistics on livelihood trajectory
modelling; Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial IFAD, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), WorldVision,
Research Organisation (CSIRO) on incorporating trees within Vi-Agroforestry, One Acre Fund, CARE and SahelEco
its Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) suite are examples of partners for delivery at scale, together
of globally calibrated crop models; Bangor University in the with national and local governments (e.g. in Ethiopia,
UK on genomics to understand the functional profiles of Peru and Vietnam).

Livelihood systems | 7
  armers in Northwest Vietnam prepare for planting at one of three
F
50-hectare agroforestry demonstration landscapes in the region.
Photo by R. Finlayson/ICRAF

Cover: Farmer Belisario Villacrez stands in a private bolaina tree plantation in Peru. Photo by R. Sears

The CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) is the world’s largest research for development program
to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate
change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with Bioversity International, CATIE, CIRAD, ICRAF, INBAR and TBI.

FTA thanks all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: cgiar.org/funders/

LED BY IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
FOR DEVELOPMENT

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