Agroforestry is an important production technique implemented in many parts of the world for commercial purposes for the capitalist world and for subsistence for small farmers. The fact that it is a production technique approved in the Kyoto Protocol as the only production system that can be flexible to climate change conditions also indicates that it is valid for carbon accumulation, sustainability of biodiversity, food security, water conservation, erosion protection, etc., which are important issues of climate change.

Agroforestry technically requires the presence of trees along with the product on agricultural land or pasture and animal production is expected to support this. Trees are the creatures on earth that bind the most carbon from the atmosphere to the soil (Nair and Kumar, 2011). Lands where agricultural production is carried out are designed by taking into account the land topography, orientation, soil type, irrigation possibilities, nutrient availability and the product to be grown. Trees ramp up the organic matter in the soil with their under-root and above-root organs. As the presence of organic matter ramps up, soil fertility, product quality and resistance to erosion boost. The water retention capacity of the soil, whose structural structure improves, increases. Trees act as elder brothers to crops with their trunks, protecting them from vertical sunlight, harsh winds, hail and rain under climate change conditions. They prevent the product from being damaged by increasing the air humidity with their leaves during increasing temperatures in summer. Trees help renew fresh water resources by allowing rainwater to accumulate in aquifers with their roots. Tree roots enable filtering and cleaning of water in contaminated soils where agriculture is done using excessive chemicals.
Studies on agroforestry show (Nair, 1993) that with the agroforestry production system, easy and high productivity can be achieved with healthy soil and clean water under climate change conditions. In addition, in agroforestry production, it is possible to obtain products from trees and products at least twice a year, which is important for the continuity of income.

Agroforestry, an important element of traditional agricultural knowledge, is practiced with different product patterns and designs in hundreds of different villages around the world. In Türkiye, although these practices vary depending on the region, we can give examples: Linden + alder + chestnut on local tea + beans in the Eastern Black Sea Region; combinations of maize + poplar + alder + hazelnut around the house; agroforestry activities are carried out by growing St. John’s wort + thyme + mint + aromatic plants among the poplar plantations in the Marmara Ergene Region and forest tree species + olive + walnut + pomegranate + citrus and garden plants near Bergama – Aydın – Muğla (Turna, 2023).
Agroforestry has a great potential for the protection and application of traditional knowledge in countries where it is implemented (Murthy et al., 2016). Traditional agricultural knowledge is an ancient knowledge that has been transferred from person to person over thousands of years and accumulated until today. Rural communities have relied on traditional agricultural knowledge for many years to adapt to changing and diversifying climatic conditions. Traditional knowledge is needed to understand behavioral differences in fauna and flora, especially as an indicator of changing natural factors. In this respect, information is used in the production of climate change political decisions due to its low-cost, participatory, local and sustainable features. Because the knowledge was learned, accepted and applied in the farmer culture. Throughout history, farmers have been making important decisions in the production system, such as product selection or planting time, by looking at traditional indicators. These indicators consist of cultural and traditional structures created by the perceived behavior of animals such as birds and insects or tree species in the environment (Nkomwaa et al. 2013).

Agroforestry is a technique that has been practiced in various parts of the world for thousands of years. Today, applying and transmitting traditional ecological knowledge, although often limited, many indigenous communities have historically managed agroforestry, albeit complex, to meet the physical, economic, cultural and spiritual needs of ecosystems. Since its knowledge has been accumulated over the years from generation to generation, a society that has learned to read where the wind will blow and when, which bird will bring the rain and the wishes of the soil in ecosystem management and farm management under climate change conditions can extract the information that can keep up with this change from the system.
Agroforestry is also a source of traditional agricultural knowledge. Ensuring the continuity of a complex system management under increasingly difficult climatic conditions is built on this knowledge. Agroforestry, which is a traditional knowledge that provides resilience to the agroecosystem under damaging climate change conditions, renews itself by opening the door to new knowledge in every land where it is produced.
As a result, agroforestry, which is a field of study that requires to be studied as a branch of science, needs to be re-evaluated for farmers under climate change conditions…
REFERENCES…
INDU K MURTHY, SUBHAJİT DUTTA, VINISHA VARGHESE, PRIYA P. JOSHI POORNIMA KUMAR, 2016 Global Journal of Science Frontier Research: Environment & Earth Science Volume 16 Issue 5 Version 1.0 Year 2016
P.K.R. NAIR,1993, An Introduction to Agroforestry Kluwer Academic Publishers Boston / London in cooperation with International Centre for Research in Agroforestry
P.K.R NAIR and B. MOHAN KUMAR, 2011, Carbon Sequestration Potential of Agroforestry Systems ISSN 1875-1199 e-ISSN 1875-1202 ,ISBN 978-94-007-1629-2, e-ISBN 978-94-007-1630-8 DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1630-8, Springer, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York
EMMANUEL CHARLES NKOMWA , MIRIAM KALANDA, JOSHUA ,COSMO NGONGONDO A, MAURICE MONJEREZI, FELISTUS CHIPUNGU, 2013, Assessing Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in Agriculture: A Case Study of Chagaka Village, Chikhwawa, Southern Malawi, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 67–69 (2014) 164–172
Professor Dr. Nurgül Türemiş, Lecturer, Çukurova University, Faculty of Agriculture
Professor Dr. İbrahim Ortaş, Lecturer, Çukurova University, Faculty of Agriculture
İBRAHİM TURNA, 2023, Tarımsal Ormancılık, Gece Kitaplığı Yayınları, Trabzon, Türkiye

By Berrak Birgili, Agroforestry Expert