About the Conference

The ninth North American Agroforestry Conference of the Association for Temperate Agroforestry (AFTA) will be held June 12 – June 15, 2005 at the Kahler Grand Hotel, Rochester, Minnesota. The theme for this conference, “Moving Agroforestry into the Mainstream,” is intended to attract those people interested in the production and environmental benefits of agroforestry. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management (CINRAM) at the University of Minnesota and the Southwest Badger Resource Conservation and Development Council in Southwestern Wisconsin.

The intent of this conference is to provide a forum for practitioners, scientists, NGOs, and agency representatives to share their experiences and discuss production and environmental benefits provided by different agroforestry systems.

The conference will include 2 days of concurrent sessions on various topics relevant to agroforestry, a poster session that includes many of these themes on both national and international levels, panel discussions that focus on policy issues, successes and promising directions for agroforestry. The third day of the conference will include several field trips to visit agroforestry in practice as well as ongoing research on agroforestry options to address research as well as the implementation of agroforestry options.

The topics that will be addressed at the conference along with examples of some of the presentations for each one include:

Adoption of agroforestry systems – what is working and where?

  • “The Non-Operator Landlord and Agroforestry: An Analysis of Factors Associated with Interest in Agroforestry Practices ”
  • “Factors affecting adoption of agroforestry practices in Missouri”

Applications and practices of current systems

  • “Growth of southern pines at different stand configurations in silvopastoral practices”
  • “Arthropod communities in an alley cropped practice - theory and reality”

Economics, markets, and profitability for agroforestry

  • “The Economics of Forest Farming of Native Medicinal Plants in Eastern North America: Opportunities, Challenges, and Potential Solutions for Broader Adoption by Small-scale Producers”
  • “Assessing the Market Potential of Specialty Forest Products in Local Food Systems”

Education, training, and outreach in agroforestry

  • “Cooperative Land Stewardship in Borderlands of the Southwestern United States”
  • “Directing Educational Efforts to Meet Farmer Needs: Managing Natural Resources in an Agricultural Landscape”

Environmental services provided by agroforestry

  • “Agroforestry--Working Trees for Sequestering Carbon on Ag-Lands”
  • “Effects of landscape position and temperate alley cropping practices on soil carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide flux in an agricultural watershed”

Policy Issues in Agroforestry Adoption

  • There will be a special general session dealing with agroforestry policy issues

Role of agroforestry in watershed management – hydrologic, water quality, and other natural resource benefits

  • “Effects of buffer and grazing systems on run-off from pasturelands”
  • “Tree, grass and crop root length densities and soil water content within an agroforestry system”
  • “Modeling Streamflow Response of Crop Conversions to Agroforestry and Other Perennial Cropping Systems”

Tools and resources for use in agroforestry systems

  • “Tool Time: Melding Watershed and Site Goals on Private Lands”
  • “Working Trees--Agroforestry Role in Integrated Watershed Management Initiatives”

The poster session will include the following presentations, among others:

  • “Soil moisture regimes under annual and perennial crops as components of agroforestry systems”
  • “An Assessment of Land Capability for Water Quality Protection Using Buffers”
  • “Recognition of Good Environmental Stewardship and Livelihood Improvement through Agroforestry”
  • “Potential role of agroforestry in achieving hydrologic and stream channel stability”
  • “Agroforestry systems with native tree species in Misiones, Argentina: productive, social and environmental services”

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