Agroforestry, the integration of woody perennials with farming systems, has been practiced in India since time immemorial as a tradition land use system because it offers both economically and ecologically viable option to farmers and rural people community for large-scale diversification in agriculture to get supplement fuel, fodder, fruits and fibers on one hand and environment amelioration on the other hand. Despite Agroforestry’s huge potential in India, the adoption rates are still low because there are several challenges that reap the benefits of agroforestry like shortage of superior planting material, insufficient research, lack of market infrastructure, cumbersome and frustrating legislation in respect of tree felling, wood transportation, processing. The adoption of National Agroforestry policy by the government of India in 2014 expected to remove these challenges as well as increases the farm productivity and the livelihood of the small and marginal farmers substantially in the future.

Agroforestry is not a new concept although it has been practiced in India for thousands of years  on agricultural lands for different purposes like for food, fodder, fruit, firewood, medicinal trees, bio-fertilizer, Non-timber forest products (NTFP), shelter etc. Agroforestry is a shining approach which merges century’s old knowledge with modern science in a system and the concept of thinking small scale to achieve potentially big and transformative outcomes.

Today, Indian agriculture faces diverse challenges and constraint due to growing demographic pressure, increasing food, feed and fodder needs, natural resource degradation and climate change therefore a management system needs to be devised that is capable of producing food from marginal agricultural land and is also capable of maintaining and improving quality of producing environment. Agroforestry is the only option because it has a tremendous potential to simultaneously offer both economically and ecologically viable option to farmers and rural people community for large-scale diversification in agriculture to get supplement fuel, fodder, fruits and fibers on one hand and stabilizing the ecosystems (increase the tree cover, production of timber and other wood products thus reduces the pressure on the forests) on the other hand.

India becomes the first nation to adopt a comprehensive policy on agroforestry, which is path breaker in making agroforestry as an instrument for transforming lives of rural farming population, protecting ecosystem and ensuring food security through sustainable means. The new policy shows a major shift in opinion towards the agroforestry because previously, agroforestry was seen as a part of forestrybut now policy views it as the part of agriculture. The major highlights of the policy are establishment of Institutional setup at National level to promote Agroforestry under the mandate of Ministry of Agriculture; simplify regulations related to harvesting, felling and transportation of twenty identified trees grown on farmlands; ensuring security of land tenure and creating a sound base of land records and data for developing an Market Information System (MIS) for agro forestry; fund investment in research, capacity building and extension related services; access to certified and quality planting material; institutional finance and insurance coverage to agroforestry practitioners; increased participation of industries dealing with agroforestry produce; strengthening marketing information system for tree products.