A study tour to Yunnan China from June 25-30, 2013 was organized under the project of Demonstration of Sustainable Upland Agroforestry Systems in Chinese Taipei,for Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI), the project executing agency, to draw on local experiences in Yunnan in an aim of enhancing exchange in agroforestry and exploring cooperation in agroforestry in future project planning.

Sharing similar natural condition in term of agroforestry with Chinese Taipei, Yunnan boasts of quite a number of forest institutes that prove into agroforestry and developed demonstration areas to showcase technical advance in this regard. The project delegation visited ICRAF Kunming Office in Kunming Botany Institute, Yunnan Academy of Forestry and Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden on their latest research on agroforestry. Current development of upland agroforestry, biodiversity conservation and survey and medicinal plant breeding such as Dendrobium in Yunnan were introduced and discussed.

Fig1.Project delegation meeting with ICRAF China Office

Fig 2. Green house cultivation of Dendrobium in Yunnan Academy of Forestry

Then field visits to agroforestry demonstration sites in Pu’er, Jinghong and Dehong were organized, where opinions on major agroforestry models on the three typical demonstration sites were introduced, including (1) Tea plantation agroforestry, (2) Rubber plantation agroforestry, (3) Pineapple plantation agroforestry.

Model 1. Tea plantation agroforestry

Tea plantation agroforestry in Yunnan generally intercrop tea with coffee, litchi, Chinese fir and other trees.

a).Tea and litchi

b).tea and Chinese fir

c). tea and coffee

d) tea and rubber

Fig. 3 Tea plantation agroforestry

Model 2.Rubber plantation agroforestry

The rubber plantation agroforestry demonstration sites in Jinhong, where rubber plantations general intercrop with legume to promote nutrient absorption of the rubber and increase latex yield.

a) Rubber and Flemingia macrophylla

b) Rubber and lemon

Fig. 4 rubber plantation agroforestry

Model 3. Pineapple plantation agroforestry

In Dehong, the pineapple plantation are intercropped with such tree species as Aquilaria agallocha (沉香), Chinese fir, Betula alnoides Hamilt (西南桦) and Simao pine.
 
a)Pineapple and Aquilaria agallocha

b) pineapple and Chinese fir

c) Pineapple+ Betula alnoides Hamilt(西南桦)     

d) pineapple+ Simao pine

Fig. 5 Pineapple plantation agroforestry

In addition to the above agroforestry models, other forest land/ farmland were also operated in the form of agroforestry by intercropping various kinds of timber species and economic crops.
   
a) Wild Dendrobium cultivation 

b) Chinese fir and corn

c) Coffee and senna siamea (铁刀木)

d) coffee and nut
   
e) bamboo and Dictyophora (竹荪)

f) Demonstration of lemon plantation

Fig. 6 Other agroforestry types