The Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri


The Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri, established in 1998, is one of the world’s leading centers contributing to the science underlying agroforestry, the integration of trees and shrubs into agricultural landscapes.

Integrated temperate agroforestry practices including forest farming, alley cropping, silvopasture, riparian buffers, windbreaks, and urban food forests, can enhance land and aquatic habitats for wildlife and improve biodiversity while sustaining land resources for generations to come. Agroforestry practices benefit farmers, landowners, and other land stewards by diversifying products, markets, and farm income; improving soil and water quality; sequestering carbon; and reducing erosion, non-point source pollution, and damage due to flooding. Agroforestry contributes to resilience in a time of change.


UMCA aims to provide relevant resources for our growing agroforestry community.

Find what you’re looking for below based on how you identify.


Learn more about our work by checking out our Annual Report publications and Strategic Plan, and by subscribing to Action in Agroforestry E-news.

Highlighted Resources

With specialty crop research spanning more than three decades, the Center for Agroforestry has amassed a wealth of knowledge about how to fund, establish, maintain, and market agroforestry systems and the products that come from them.

Our technical guide library is available for free, with topics spanning chestnut cultivation to pawpaw orchard establishment, navigating NRCS funding to land succession planning, riparian buffer design to economic budgeting, and much more.

Browse our technical guide library

We host annual field events, conferences, and symposia to encourage knowledge exchange and continued collaboration among the agroforestry community. The most intensive of our training opportunities is our annual Agroforestry Training Academy.

The Academy brings together producers, natural resource and agriculture professionals, technical assistance providers, and educators to gain an in-depth understanding of agroforestry practices, system-level design, species selection, marketing, and more. Virtual and in-person options available.

Established and emerging agroforestry producers have access to more funding options than ever before to help cover the costs associated with planting and maintaining trees and shrubs.

The Center for Agroforestry is involved in several projects that incentivize the establishment of agroforestry systems on farms in Missouri and the Lower Midwest. While our team develops web resources related to the newest of these initiatives, take a look at the project websites below for more information and read through our technical guide on accessing NRCS assistance for agroforestry and woody crop establishment.

Download our technical guide on NRCS assistance

Recent peer-reviewed publications from Center for Agroforestry researchers and key collaborators:

Amorim, H.C.S., Ashworth, A.J., O’Brien, P.L., Thomas, A.L. et al. Temperate silvopastures provide greater ecosystem services than conventional pasture systems. Sci Rep 13, 18658 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45960-0

Ho, KV., Hsieh, HY., Roy, A.,  et al. Quantification and characterization of biological activities of glansreginin A in black walnuts (Juglans nigra). Sci Rep 13, 18860 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-46134-8

Jenderek, M.M., K.M. Yeater, and A.L. Thomas. (2023).  Germplasm of Ozark Chinquapin (Castanea ozarkensis Ashe) Can be Cryopreserved by Dormant Winter Buds.  Cryobiology 114. DOI: 10.1016/j.cryobiol.2023.104833

Kronenberg, R.; Lovell, S.; Thapa, B.; Spinka, C.; Valdivia, C.; Gold, M.; Bardhan, S. Survey of Missouri Landowners to Explore the Potential of Woody Perennials to Integrate Conservation and Production. Land 2023, 12, 1911. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12101911

Ravichandran, K. S., Silva, E., Moncada, M., Perkins-Veazie, P., Lila, M. A., Greenlief, C. M., Thomas, A. L., Hoskin, R. T., & Krishnaswamy, K. (2023). Spray drying to produce novel phytochemical-rich ingredients from juice and pomace of American elderberry. Food Bioscience, 55, 102981. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbio.2023.102981

Reilly, E.C., Conway-Anderson, A., Franco, J.G., Jungers, J.M., Moore, E.B. and Williams, C. (2023). Editorial: Continuous living cover: adaptive strategies for putting regenerative agriculture into practice.Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 7:1320870. DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1320870

Salceda-Gonzalez, M., Udawatta, R.P. & Anderson, S.H. Agroforestry on runoff nitrogen and phosphorus losses from three paired watersheds after 25 years of implementation. Agroforest Syst (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s10457-023-00932-1

Terasaki Hart, D.E., Yeo, S., Almaraz, M. et al. Priority science can accelerate agroforestry as a natural climate solution. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01810-5

Thapa, B., Lovell, S., Meier, N., Revord, R., Owens, P., and Gold, M. (2023).  Significant opportunities for tree crop expansion on marginal lands in the Midwest, USA.  J. of Sustainable Agriculture and Environment.  http://doi.org/10.1002/sae2.12080

Thomas, A.L., Byers, P.L., Starnes, R., Sergent, S.E., Templemire, A., McGowan, K., Schuessler, B., Gold, M.A., Westwood, M.N. and Biagioni, R. (2023). ‘Pocahontas’: a vigorous and highly productive American elderberry. Acta Hortic. 1381, 59-68 DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2023.1381.8

Ylagan, S., Brye, K. R., Ashworth, A. J., Owens, P. R., Smith, H., Poncet, A. M., Sauer, T. J., Thomas, A. L., & Philipp, D. (2023). Relationships among apparent electrical conductivity and plant and terrain data in an agroforestry system in the Ozark Highlands. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment, 6, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.20414

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