Agroforestry - possibilities of multifunctional land use.

The paper aims to point out the importance of applying the methods and technologies of agroforestry in the countries of the region. This is a practice that has been used with great success throughout the world, in different climatic zones. The advantages are numerous – besides increased crop production, benefits from properly designed and managed agroforestry practices include: economic gain, healthier environment, soil conservation and improved soil quality, sequestration of atmospheric carbon, increased biodiversity, improved landscape and many others. Though the possibilities for multifunctional land use are numerous, benefits large and quality of plants grown in association with trees often improved, in Serbia and other countries in this region agroforestry is not implemented enough. Some of the agroforestry components are separately applied in some parts of the region, e.g. wind protection belts, planting of soybeans or corn in the poplar plantations of E.A. cultivars, pig’s nutrition in the forests of oak or beech. Methods and technologies of agroforestry that can be applied in temperate regions are much more numerous and this paper discusses some of them.