Background: Agroforestry systems have the potential to provide timber and wood as a domestic raw material, as well as an additional source of income for rural populations. In Central Asia, tree windbreaks from mainly poplar trees have a long tradition, but were largely cut down as source for fuel wood after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. As Central Asia is a forest-poor region, restoration of tree windbreaks has the potential to provide timber and wood resources to that region. This study aimed to assess the potential of tree windbreaks to contribute to domestic timber and wood production. Methods: This study rests on a GIS-based analysis, in which tree lines (simulated by line shape files) were intersected with cropland area. The tree data to calculate timber and wood volumes stem from a dataset with 728 single trees from a relevant range of climatic conditions. Results: The potential annually available timber volumes from tree windbreaks with 500 m spacing are 2.9 million m3 for Central Asia as a whole and 1.5 million m3 for Uzbekistan alone, which is 5 times the current domestic roundwood production and imports of the country. Conclusions: tree windbreaks offer untapped potential to deliver wood resources domestically as a raw material for wood-based value chains.
Tag: Irrigated agriculture
Agro-economy of tree wind break systems in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia
Tree wind break systems are found in many parts of the world. In particular in windy and arid regions they help to increase crop yields and reduce crop water consumption. Due to these reasons, tree wind breaks have a long tradition in Central Asia and were strongly propagated there during Soviet Union times. After the Soviet Union had disintegrated and the countries in Central Asia had become independent, energy supplies from Russia ceased and fuel wood became the primary energy source for large parts of the population, in particular rural population. Consequently, most of those tree wind breaks were cut down for fuel wood during the 1990s. Now, governments wish to restore these systems, but many farmers are skeptical about the economic returns from investment in tree wind breaks. Against this background, this study calculated revenues, costs, and profits for tree wind break systems of poplars combined with wheat, barley, corn, alfalfa, cotton, and rice in Kyrgyzstan, based on interviews and field observations. Tree wind breaks with more than one row of trees (multiple row type) did not result in financial gains for most crop tree wind break systems compared to open field conditions, while single tree wind breaks were cost-neutral or resulted in small economic gains, also under different discount rates and revenues attained from crops and trees. Among the different grid sizes, the 200 m × 200 m grid attained the highest financial surplus compared with open field conditions and other grid sizes. Thereby, effectively it is recommended to establish tree wind breaks along existing field borders or irrigation ditches while keeping an average distance between tree lines of 200 m, in order not to impede farm operations.