Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced a cooperative partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Canada’s Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food that will promote agroforestry to help landowners improve water quality, control soil erosion and boost their agriculture production.
“We support agroforestry as a land management approach because it helps landowners achieve certain natural resource goals, such as clean water and productive soils,” said Vilsack. “But it does much more. Clean water is a precious natural resource, and America’s economic success is directly related to a continuous and abundant supply of clean water.”
The Memorandum of Understanding establishing the cooperative partnership will allow USDA’s National Agroforestry Center, jointly sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Canada’s Agri-Environment Service Branch’s Agroforestry Development Centre to collaborate on research and development, including the advancement of agroforestry science and tools for climate change mitigation and adaptation in temperate North America.
The two centers will also support the Global Research Alliance on Agriculture Greenhouse Gases, of which both countries are members. Information will be shared with landowners, managers, and natural resource professionals.
From The USDA: https://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2012/04/0121.xml&contentidonly=true