Economic Share of Agroforestry in Boosting Living Status of Farmers Community: A Case Study of District Faisalabad

Abstract

Agroforestry (AF) is a traditional land management system in Pakistan that has the 
potential to boost agriculture and cope with wood shortage. Being a forest deficit country Pakistan 
has to improve the tree cover which is just less than 5%, about which 2.1% is productive and is 
unable to meet the local needs and to improve the social fabric of the community. Along with 
deforestation, urbanization, industrialization, and climate change have imposed disastrous effects 
on the forest resources of the country. Thus, to create awareness among rural masses about the 
importance of trees on farmlands, a comprehensive survey-based study was designed for two 
tehsils of District Faisalabad, Pakistan; to investigate the role of Social forestry and the impact of 
climate change upon it and, to recognize its importance in socioeconomic condition of rural 
communities. After the data analysis by using (SPSS 8.1 Software), results showed that about 80% 
of respondents were willing to grow trees on their farmlands if they were provided with technical 
support. However, 50% of the educated/literate respondents have shown more interest in growing 
trees on their farmlands. About 90% of the total respondents have shown interest in tree plantation 
on farmlands and social forestry is helpful in a sense to aid in the socioeconomic condition of 
rural/farming communities. Moreover, 82% and 61% of respondents from Faisalabad and Chak 
Jhumra respectively were aware that tree plantations can mitigate climate change. Therefore, 
social forestry-related projects especially agroforestry need the hour for the mitigation of adverse 
climate change, uplifting the socioeconomic of farmers, and meeting the local industrial and fuel 
wood needs.