The economic impacts of agroforestry in the Northern Plains of China

In an effort to mitigate severe environmental problems, the Chinese government introduced ecological agriculture as an approach to sustainable grain production. One such method heavily employed in the Northern Plains of China is agroforestry. This region provides a unique case to assess the effect of agroforestry on agricultural output. This paper estimates a production function with a measure for forest cover to test the hypothesis that agroforestry makes a positive and significant contribution to agricultural output. Evidence shows that the effects of agroforestry on agricultural output are positive, though not always significant. This finding is relevant not only to Chinese agriculture, but also in answering the question of how agricultural sustainability can be accomplished in the long term. With increasing populations and decreasing opportunities for land expansion globally, agroforestry is one answer to improving agricultural growth.