Agroforestry – Trees at Work on the Farm

This lesson is designed to introduce to students some of the management decisions and advantages of incorporating agroforestry into a farming enterprise. Agroforestry aims to achieve the dual purpose of improving the sustainability of the farm land asset with the added benefit of producing a financially profitable commercial timber product. The incorporation of trees on farms produces shade and shelter for pastures, crops and animals which positively impacts on their yields, improves water quality and positively addresses soil degradation issues such as erosion and salinity.

The teaching and learning resources utilise a number of teaching strategies and activities including brainstorming sessions, Kahoot! quizzes, physical modelling of plantation orientations, designing an field trial experiment, poster presentations, viewing up to date Australian multimedia agroforestry case studies, and graphing activities. By engaging in this topic, teachers will be able to educate students on an important and practical way of incorporating more trees into farming enterprises for a farms triple bottom line – benfits for economic, social and environmental areas of the farm enterprise.