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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Booneville, Arkansas » Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #436342
Research Project: Innovations for Small Farms Pasture and Silvopasture

Location: Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center

Title: Storying a responsive agroforestry technical assistance and training landscape in the US

Author
item HEMMELGARN, H - University Of Missouri
item BLOOMQUIST, M - North Carolina State University
item WARREN, S - University Of Missouri
item STUBBLEFIELD, K - University Of Missouri
item COMMENDER, K - Appalachian State University
item GIROUX, M - University Of Vermont
item DECRE, B - Savanna Institute
item ALLEY, J - University Of Missouri

Submitted to: Agroforestry Systems
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/20/2026
Publication Date: 6/30/2026
Citation: Hemmelgarn, H.L., Bloomquist, M.G., Warren, S.P., Stubblefield, K., Commender, K., Giroux, M., Decre, B., Alley, J. 2026. Storying a responsive agroforestry technical assistance and training landscape in the US. Agroforestry Systems. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-026-01551-2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-026-01551-2

Interpretive Summary: Temperate agroforestry in the US is typically characterized within five core practices: alley cropping, windbreaks, riparian forest buffers, silvopasture, and forest farming, and extends to applications in urban and community food production, bioenergy production, and wildlife habitat restoration (USDA National Agroforestry Center, 2012). Simply, agroforestry is the intentional integration of trees, shrubs, and nontimber forest products into multifunctional farm and forest agroecosystems (USDA, n.d; Garrett et al. 2021). Design, installation, and management of these practices, however, is anything but simple. Due to their inherent diversity and context-specific nature, effective implementation of agroforestry in all its potential forms requires a depth of knowledge, experience, and skill (McRae 2024; Taylor & Lovell 2021). While land manager understanding of these complex practices remains low, those with greater knowledge of agroforestry have been shown to be more willing to adopt them (Stubblefield et al. 2025; Valdivia & Poulos 2009), particularly where capital access and multifunctional objectives, e.g., for both conservation and productivity, align for transitioning land uses (Mattia et al. 2018; Trozzo et al. 2014).

Technical Abstract: In response to limited technical assistance capacity available to meet growing producer interest in agroforestry in the US, several interregional organizers of a burgeoning effort to coordinate national-scale agroforestry technical and training (TAT) focused multiple sessions at the 2025 North American Agroforestry Conference on current conditions and surfacing opportunities for the development of agroforestry professional pathways. Federal support for agroforestry is increasingly dynamic, and effective design and implementation of the practices requires a depth of skill and understanding. Perspectives from multiple programs in targeted regions of the US contribute to this storied landscape of agroforestry training for technical assistance providers. Through our collaborative efforts to understand the scope of existing programs, we present emerging models and priorities that aim to address observed and documented gaps in agroforestry TAT. This descriptive review of programs is informed by an agroforestry TAT inventory conducted in 2024 by the Agroforestry Coalition’s TAT Working Group, a coordinated curriculum development effort with a subset of partners in the group, and a Theory of Change model created and under revision by agroforestry TAT leadership in the US. Together, we envision agroforestry training integrated across allied institutions and agencies, a thriving professional network, and regional adaptability that centers practitioner experiences.