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economics of production through time), a substantial body of research information has been developed and is increasing annually. Advances in both the biophysical and socioeconomic understanding of agroforestry practices is helping to reduce both biological and financial risks for producers.
Agroforestry scientists have found grant support through the many programs within the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), the nation’s leading competitive grants program for the agricultural sciences. The NIFA awards AFRI research, education, and extension grants to improve rural economies, increase food production, stimulate the bioeconomy, mitigate the impacts of climate variability, address water availability issues, ensure food safety and security, enhance human nutrition, and train the next generation of the agricultural workforce. Multiple federal agencies and programs including NIFA, the USDA–AMS, USDA–ARS, Farm Service Agency, U.S. Forest Service, NRCS, SARE, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, and National Institutes of Health all support facets of the science and application of agroforestry.
Agroforestry researchers have had particular funding success through USDA SARE grants and USDA–AMS Specialty Crop Block Grants. With rare exceptions, grant funding opportunities are competitive and, in light of constantly diminishing support for higher education, the competition for federal grant dollars is fierce—often funding <10% of submitted proposals. In this light, what is currently lacking is a dedicated research funding program specifically targeted to support agroforestry.
University Education
In 1997, 36 universities in 28 different states reported teaching at least one course dealing with agroforestry (Rietveld, 1997). As of 2017, 27 U.S. institutions reported current agroforestry course offerings (Wright, 2017). However, due to the presence of online agroforestry programs, educational access for those interested in studying agroforestry has increased (Gold, 2015; Gold & Jose, 2012). In addition, the breadth and availability of the relevant literature and up‐to‐date textbooks has continued to increase. In addition to this text, another recently updated text is dedicated to temperate agroforestry (Gordon et al., 2018), and other similar compendiums have been published (Mosquera‐Losada & Prabhu, 2019). Agroforestry education is reviewed in detail in Chapter 19.
Within universities, agroforestry courses are most often offered through forestry, natural resources, or agriculture departments (Wright, 2017). In addition, agroforestry is often addressed within courses on sustainable agriculture, agroecology, integrated forest management, international agriculture, or sustainable development. Typically, courses dedicated solely to agroforestry consider both domestic and international aspects. Although many universities offer agroforestry courses, few offer comprehensive curricula, and most agroforestry courses are used to supplement disciplinary degree options at the undergraduate level and to help build interdisciplinary programs at the graduate level.
Few institutions possess the complement of faculty to offer the selection of courses believed necessary for a major in agroforestry or, if they have the faculty, it is difficult to bring them together to offer an integrated agroforestry curriculum (Gold & Jose, 2012; Lassoie, 1990; Lassoie et al., 1994). Agroforestry is not a discipline but rather an interdisciplinary field of study. Therefore, a comprehensive agroforestry curriculum (or even a single course) demands expertise from a wide variety of professionals, often from different academic units across campus. Such individuals are often fully committed to teaching responsibilities within their respective disciplines, making it difficult for them to engage in a new curriculum or team‐taught course. This means that not only are their numbers relatively small, but there is also a widespread lack of extensive training and experience in agroforestry within the academic community, especially related to its application to North American conditions. Fortunately, this situation is changing as faculty gain relevant experience, more graduate students pursue agroforestry studies, and universities begin to hire those with such an education.
Agroforestry curricula tend to be carried by a limited number of faculty members (often one) and their graduate students working within either an agriculture or forestry academic unit (e.g., college, school, or department). Unfortunately, the decision typically is made by default: who has the interest and commitment to deal with an interdisciplinary topic like agroforestry, especially when considering its application to a modern, production‐oriented society? This means that the administrative support for agroforestry can be quite weak, existing only at the margin of more commonly understood traditional teaching programs.
In the United States and Canada, notable exceptions to the general trend include agroforestry programs at the University of Missouri, Virginia Tech, and Laval University in Canada. These and a handful of other universities (e.g., the University of Florida, University of Minnesota, Cornell University) are actively training agroforestry professionals who are now filtering out to other schools in temperate North America, creating the human and applied research base that can be used to grow the discipline in the United States. The University of Missouri has had a sustained funding base for more than two decades and has developed increasingly robust agroforestry research, teaching, and outreach programs. In addition to its on‐campus agroforestry graduate program, the University of Missouri established an online master of science program and an online graduate certificate in 2013. These fully online programs have provided access to agroforestry education regardless of geography (Gold & Jose, 2012). Between 2013 and 2018, more than 70 students have been admitted into these programs and 30 have received graduate credentials in agroforestry.
Despite the current limitations, agroforestry courses typically attract highly qualified students who often come with extensive international agroforestry experience, including the Peace Corps (Gold & Jose, 2012), or are familiar with permaculture, agroecology, and sustainable or regenerative agriculture. In the past, such interest was limited to graduate students seeking careers in international development. More recently, however, both undergraduates and graduate students have been attracted to agroforestry courses, probably reflecting their growing interest in courses dealing with issues of sustainability. Employment opportunities where agroforestry credentials are a definite plus are increasing. Many federal agencies (e.g., the NRCS), global, national, and regional conservation organizations (e.g., Heifer International, The Nature Conservancy, National Wild Turkey Federation, Trees Forever), along with NGOs specifically dedicated to agroforestry (e.g., Savanna Institute) are hiring individuals with agroforestry backgrounds.
Professional and Practitioner Training
The need for continuing education and training in agroforestry for both professionals and practitioners was recognized in the early 1990s. Specific needs for such training were identified for various regions of the United States (Merwin, 1997), and scattered regional trainings were held across a broad range of topics (Josiah, 1999); however, active professional training programs did not become commonplace until the early 2000s. Agroforestry training programs are reviewed in more detail in Chapter 19.
The first USDA agroforestry strategic framework (USDA, 2011) discussed the need for education and training of natural resource professionals, including training needs, methods, tools and certification, to effectively deliver agroforestry assistance. General recommendations included pursuing partnerships and cross‐training opportunities with special interest groups and nontraditional partners and seeking training opportunities such as landowner‐to‐landowner, peer‐to‐peer, local organizations, and professional training of different audiences.
In 2019, the USDA released an updated Agroforestry Strategic Framework (USDA, 2019), revisiting priorities for professional education. Their primary objective was to increase the availability of information and tools that help natural resource professionals to provide technical, educational, financial, and marketing assistance. The outlined strategies included support for university efforts to develop agroforestry curricula and to offer a major, certificate, or area of expertise in agroforestry, providing natural resource professionals with an array of options for receiving and providing training and technical assistance in agroforestry technologies and landowner outreach, including professional meetings and