DefinePK

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the wake of global overpopulation, agroforestry has the potential to help sustain agriculture, livelihoods, ecology, and food security. It is, however, difficult to implement sustainable agroforestry practices because it is necessary to understand the characteristics and perceptions of farmers. It is complex but crucial to anticipate and analyze these aspects. The aim of this study is to investigate factors affecting farmers especially small land owner farmers and their intentions to plant trees on their farmland, as well as potential hindrances to their efforts. Two-stage random sampling was adopted to collect the required information from forty respondents through a structured questionnaire. Our results revealed that about 72.5% of respondents have the primary reason for planting is economic return, while 15% plants for shelterbelt purposes. Whereas, results further revealed that 12.5% farmers planted trees for land stabilization. In addition to that 57.5% of households gets benefits from agroforestry in the form of cash and fuel wood 10% in the form of fuel wood. From the survey it is also revealed that 45% of farmers are directly benefited from fuel wood from farmland, while 32.5% of farmers relied for fire wood on their land as well as from market. Overall, the findings indicated that factors related to socio-economic status, such as family size, land possession, subsidies received, livestock raising, types of energy used, and total income, significantly impacted the planting of trees on agricultural land. For the promotion of national agroforestry, policies that improve forestry and agricultural extension services and agricultural education are imperative. Keywords: Agroforestry, Farmers, Fuel wood, Household