ICAR-Central Agroforestry Research Institute (CAFRI), in association with South Asia Programme of International Centre for Research on Agroforestry (ICRAF), is organising a training program on, ‘Research Methods in Agroforestry’ from 1-5 December, 2014 at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh.

The training programme aims to help researchers design practical, valid and efficient agroforestry experiments that meet useful objectives. It will help researchers understand how general principles of experimental design can be put into practice in agroforestry experiments, including participatory trials done with farmers. It will introduce researchers to the newer areas of experimentation, including multi-environment trials for understanding complex interactions with ecological and social factors.

Dr S K Dhyani, Director, CAFRI emphasised the need for learning from the experiences of the Agroforestry network programme successfully implemented for more than three decades in India and other countries. He introduced the salient points of the National Agroforestry Policy 2014 and the efforts being made to implement the policy guidelines.

Dr Ajit, Principal Scientist, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), New Delhi, highlighted the research on agroforestry to mitigate climate change effects.

Dr Richard Coe, Principal Scientist (Research Methods) at World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), shared the need for researchers to understand how general principles of experimental design can be put into practice in agroforestry experiments, including participatory trials done with farmers.

Scientists from SAARC countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are working under the Agroforestry network at 16 state agricultural universities in India. Participants from CAFRI and Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (IGFRI), Jhansi, participated in the training programme.