*4.2.14 Agroforestry*

Agroforestry can provide suitable tools for landscape restauration because it can enhance physical, chemical, and biological soil characteristics. Agroforestry is restoring and increasing land productivity because the presence of the trees can fix nitrogen, stabilize the soil, reduce soil erosion, increase fertility, and regulate water available in degraded lands.

Trees increase fertility by retrieving nutrients from deeper soils and adding them to the soil surface through the leaf litter. Because of their deep root system, trees prevent nutrients from leaching, combat soil salinization, and acidification. The use of trees with fixing-nitrogen bacteria is increasing crop productivity. Experiments in Zambia, for example, showed that maize yields increased by 88–190% when grown in an agroforestry system under a canopy of *Faidherbia Albida Trees* (FAO report Agroforestry for landscape restauration).

Trees can reduce and prevent soil erosion planted in windbreaks trees protect soil from erosion and increase yield.

Agroforestry buffer strips increase water runoff, and soil evaporation and increase water infiltration and water retention capacity, helping plants to cross the drought.
