Promoting climate-smart sustainable agroforestry to tackle social and environmental challenges: The case of macadamia agroforestry in Malawi

Abstract

Our current global food system is understood to require a fundamental transformation based on a holistic approach to maintain long-term fertility, healthy biodiverse agroecosystems, and climate-proof/secure livelihoods. Recently, there has been a growing recognition of smallholder farmers' contributions to addressing key global environmental and social development issues, including poverty, food security, climate change, and sustainable development. One specific approach is agroforestry-based agriculture, in which edible food and commercially important trees are grown on cropland, thereby improving the biodiversity of farming systems, enhancing agricultural productivity, and adding benefits such as nutrition and financial stability, not least climate resilience. In this context, we present lessons learned from an agroforestry system in Malawi that involves smallholder farmer cooperatives interplanting macadamia nut trees with annual crops such as groundnuts, maize, and soybeans. We review holistic advantages such as yield improvement, farmer perceptions, and challenges. We provide insights into what works in designing (Neno Macadami Trust and linkage with finance plan) and draw lessons that can be applied to other comparable programmes worldwide.

Keywords

• Macadamia
• Agroforestry
• Climate change
• Sustainable food system
• Malawi
• Smallholder farmers