The farm and forestry divide was a slip of
development strategy of the dominant reductionist views
about people and nature. The separate policies, institutional
as well as bio-physical boundaries of farm and forestry and
the divided roles of the farmers and service providers has
resulted the greater extent of failure in both the agriculture as
well as forestry to improve the local food system,
income/employment and the fragile ecosystem. The
community based forestry, traditionally with significant
buffering role to farm and forest interface, was dragged and
boxed into orthodox forestry domain - leading this failure.
This paper critically examines the scope of rebuilding farm
forest relations for food security and environmental
sustainability analyzing the historical trajectories of farm
forest divide. It analyzes the potential of community forestry
to bring them together for food security and environmental
sustainability. We argue that a transformative agro-forestry
approach must adapt in view with to address the key issues of
food security, local livelihoods and environmental
degradation including climate change hazards. In specific,
relatively less labour intensive low input agro ecological
approach of producing food, wood and good (public)
together can be successfully reintroduced. In the changing
socio-economic and environmental context, rethinking on
rebuilding farm forestry interface is imperative, and the
transformative agriculture can play a significant role in
bridging these two systems towards more productive, viable
and sustainable solutions for future. However, it demands
very genuine initiative towards integrating farm with forest,
productivity with sustainability and equity of resources.
Along with the appropriate agroforestry technology, the
effort should also be in place to transform policies and
institutions that address the issues of resource access and
ownership.