Agriculture, Environment & Food Systems
Agroforestry Specialist
Combined trees and crops — important in Africa
What this life looks like
You integrate trees into farming to make it more productive, resilient, and sustainable. Agroforestry Specialists design and manage farming systems that deliberately combine trees or shrubs with crops and livestock — creating farms that are more food-secure, more climate-resilient, more biodiversity-rich, and more profitable than conventional monoculture systems. It is one of Africa's most ancient and most scientifically validated approaches to sustainable agriculture.
What she actually does
You assess farming systems and identify opportunities for tree integration, design agroforestry systems appropriate for local soil, climate, and market conditions, advise farmers on tree species selection and planting, manage the establishment and growth of agroforestry systems, conduct research on the productivity and sustainability benefits of different agroforestry designs, train extension officers and farmers, and develop policy recommendations for agroforestry adoption.
Where you can work
| Sector | Places in Africa |
|---|---|
| Research Institutes | World Agroforestry Centre/ICRAF (Nairobi), CIFOR, national agricultural research institutes with agroforestry programmes |
| NGO & Development | Vi Agroforestry (East Africa), Trees for the Future, World Vision agroforestry, CARE agroforestry programmes |
| Government | Ministry of Agriculture forestry and agroforestry departments, National Land Commission agroforestry programmes |
| Development Finance | IFAD agroforestry, World Bank land degradation restoration, GEF biodiversity and sustainable agriculture |
Why it matters in Africa
Africa's smallholder farmers are disproportionately exposed to climate variability, soil degradation, and market volatility — all of which agroforestry can address simultaneously. Trees on farms improve soil fertility through nitrogen fixation and leaf mulch, reduce erosion, provide shade and fodder, diversify income through timber, fruit, and non-timber forest products, and sequester carbon. The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) — headquartered in Nairobi — is the global leader in agroforestry research and has demonstrated extraordinary results across African farming systems.
Your pathway in
- Study Agriculture, Forestry, Environmental Science, or Natural Resource Management at university
- Develop knowledge of both crop and tree systems — agroforestry requires understanding the biology of multiple species interacting
- Build GIS and landscape analysis skills — agroforestry design is increasingly spatial
- Connect with ICRAF (World Agroforestry Centre) — they have major research and training programmes across Africa
- Develop participatory design skills — agroforestry adoption depends on genuine engagement with farmers in designing systems that work for them
Skills you will need
- Agroforestry systems design
- Tree and crop species knowledge
- Soil and ecosystem assessment
- Farmer participatory design
- Extension and training
- Carbon sequestration measurement
A woman in this field
Ramni Jamnadass
Kenya/India
Ramni is a Kenyan-Indian plant geneticist and researcher at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi who has spent decades working on improving indigenous African tree species for food and nutrition — particularly indigenous fruit trees like baobab, morula, and shea that grow on African farms and provide nutrition, income, and ecosystem services. Her work on 'domesticating' African indigenous trees — selecting superior varieties and developing better management systems — has directly improved the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of smallholder farming families across Africa.
Take your first step
- Research the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) at worldagroforestry.org — it is the global centre of excellence for agroforestry science and is based in Nairobi, making it a real and accessible career destination for East African students
- Study what nitrogen-fixing trees are and how they improve soil fertility in agroforestry systems — Faidherbia albida and Gliricidia sepium are two of the most important in African farming systems
- Visit farms that integrate trees: observe the shade trees in coffee and cocoa plantations, the fertiliser trees in maize fields, or the fodder trees in pastures — agroforestry is already widespread in Africa even where it is not formally recognised as such
- Research Trees for the Future at trees.org — they run large-scale agroforestry programmes across Africa and their case studies document the transformation of farming families' lives through tree integration