On July 16, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan released an agroforestry handbook to help farmers and woodland owners establish, manage, and market agroforestry projects that are both profitable and sustainable.
This first-of-its kind handbook, “Profitable Farms and Woodlands,” helps to guide producers through five main agroforestry practices: alley cropping, forest farming, riparian buffer strips, silvopasture, and windbreaks. It also explains how growing medicinal plants, mushrooms, or cultivating apiary products can help landowners reap additional financial benefits by tapping into multi-billion dollar industries.
The guide focuses on responsible landownership, and is designed to meet the needs of underserved and limited resource farmers and woodland owners in the Southeast.
A limited number of hard copies of the 85-page handbook are available upon request for use in agroforestry training and landowner workshops, and an online PDF for this guidebook may be found here. For more information, contact the National Agroforestry Center.