Toward planning more sustainable agroforestry systems in the face of climate change: Individual potential from croplands and woodlands

Abstract

In a world where the population and its demands are growing exponentially, and the consequences of climate change are already indisputable, agroforestry systems (AFS) emerge as a practical strategy that makes it possible to combine productive, socioeconomic, and environmental functions, preserving natural capital and maintaining productivity levels in the long term. This chapter aims to provide elements for the correct design and implementation of future AFS, based on the individual analysis of the subsystems that comprise them. So, the potential for climate change mitigation from croplands and woodlands is analyzed using their role as biomass and carbon (C) reservoirs, and as renewable bioenergy supply. It provides a useful methodological pathway to be applied in other subsystems or even in AFS and validates it through a case study in northwestern Argentina. As a result, given the different nature of the annual crop (croplands) plant tissue and the perennial crop (shrublands), the C sequestration capacity per unit area in croplands is less than one-third of that in shrublands. The shrublands achieve a C fixation of 0.56 t C ha−1 year, which the annual fixation of croplands would quadruple, but that will be eliminated back into the atmosphere at the end of the growing season. Using residual biomass from croplands would replace 6500 tons of natural gas with 8300 tons of kerosene. By properly managing shrublands even if they are of low productivity, on average about 13,800 tonnes of fossil fuels could be substituted in each annual cycle, which is twice as much as all agricultural residues could be. Likewise, the agricultural residual biomass has caloric energy 30% less than the shrublands. The results provided contribute to the promotion of technically designed AFS to maintain multiple benefits in the long term, in line with international commitments to territorial sustainability and climate change.