Ecosystem services, Biomass and energy assessment; Socio-economics and adoption of agroforestry system are the main subjects discussed in the National Agroforestry Conference held in Kigali on 04^th October 2022.

This conference themed “Trees on farms, a sustainable solution for landscape restoration, biodiversity and livelihoods”, and gathered researchers from academic institutions and development partners supporting Rwanda's landscapes production capacity restoration and climate change mitigation through agroforestry interventions.

According to academic researchers, the intensive practice of agroforestry on agricultural land is expected to improve crop production and other multiple benefits, including reduction of soil loss due to erosion, retaining water and soil nutrients, plant and soil carbon, increased biodiversity and provision of essential farm resources

"Through Bon Challenge, Rwanda committed to restore two million hectares of degraded landscapes by 2030 and agroforestry was identified as the backbone for landscape restoration". Stated Mr. Patrick KARERA, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment while officiating the opening of the conference.

Rwandan landscape has been affected by different anthropic erosion for decades which have been effectively handled in collaboration with various stakeholders engaged in agroforestry. In order to witness government’s efforts  to restore degraded landscapes, to observe current challenges and opportunities for future plans, participants in the conference conducted a two days field visit in the agro-ecological areas of the peri-urban Kigali City, Ngoma District and Kirehe District, where they observed the assessment of agroforestry impact on soil quality and crop productivity in semi-arid-regions and how tree occurrence in agricultural landscapes are quantitively characterized.

The field findings and researcher’s exchanges will provide tangible recommendations, actions, and interventions that will catalyze Rwanda's commitment to landscape restoration through DeSIRA Project and various partners.

The five years agroforestry research project (2020-2024), DeSIRA program was funded by the EU. The project is being implemented by Enabel, IUCN, ICRAF, KU LEUVEN, the University of Gent and the University of Rwanda. The project aims to understand and demonstrate the ecological, social, and economic pathways to, and resultant benefits from the scale-up of agroforestry-based restoration and sustainable biomass use particularly focusing on the peri-urban City of Kigali and the Rwandan Eastern province.