Annual crops combined with tree wind breaks, mostly from fast-growing trees, are the major agroforestry system across Central Asia. According to local tradition in some parts of Central Asia, trees are planted when a child is born. This ensures that each child has a certain amount of timber to construct a house when they are ready for marriage. In addition to providing timber and income from sale of wood, these trees provide wind breaks to help reduce water consumption in agriculture, thus build resilience against climate change. Agriculture in Central Asia largely depends on irrigation, and it is expected that water stress for farming will become more and more prevalent in the course of climate change.
During the disintegration of Soviet Union in the 1990s, Central Asia slipped into a deep economic and energy crisis and most of the wind break systems were cut down for fuel wood. This video summarizes the positive effects of agroforestry and tree wind breaks in particular. The content is based on scientific foundation as elaborated by World Agroforestry in close cooperation with Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Germany.
