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.

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.

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.

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.