An overview of agroforestry and its relevance in the mexican context

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Mexico offers a unique set of landscapes, politics, cultures, and history, which makes it a critical part of North American agroforestry. Studies of systems like the milpa, home gardens, and silvopastoral systems have historically led to framing Mexican agroforestry as a traditional, integrated agroecosystem (Hernández‐Xolocotzi, 1977). One of the original centers of agriculture, beginning ~10,000 yr ago with rotational milpa agroforestry, Mexico has long been skillful in the use of plant, fungus, and animal resources and natural classifications of soils and the living world (Schmitter, Mariaca‐Méndez, & Soto‐Pinto, 2016). Since the mid‐20th century, much has been published in Mexico about the origins of agriculture, ethnobiology, domestication, and archeology describing the composition, structure, and functions of ancient and traditional agroecosystems (Coe, 1964; Cutler, 1968). In the 1970s, this work expanded to the agroecology of traditional agroforestry (Hernández‐Xolocotzi, 1977; Gliessman, Garcia, & Amador, 1981). The concept of agroforestry systems for Mexico was soon after formalized through the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) and by Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean (Budowsky, 1979a, 1979b). Currently in Mexico, development agencies, research centers, and producer organizations are re‐envisioning agroforestry in a modern context while embracing its history. Agroforestry is a tool that makes it possible for individuals, families, and communities to support themselves and conserve their surrounding environment (Noponen et al., 2017; Soto‐Pinto & Anzueto‐Martinez, 2016). eng