Assessing the Role of Agroforestry-Livelihood-Food Security Nexus in the Madhupur Sal Forest of Bangladesh

Agroforestry practices play an inevitable role in reinforcing the livelihood of millions of small-scale farmers while ensuring sustainable food security throughout the world. The significance of practicing various strategies of agroforestry models in densely populated countries like Bangladesh is highly recognized according to livelihood functionalities. To achieve the sustainable goals of the United Nations, identifying potential agroforestry practices along with their impacts towards socio-economic, and ecological demands is crucial. Socio-economic interactions are highly influenced by livelihood improvement and assurance of food security for the participants. Madhupur Sal forest is one of the major sources of diversified combination agroforestry systems practiced by the people around it. Age, education, annual income, and agroforestry knowledge had a significant relationship with the farmers' opinions on socio-economic development through agroforestry practices. Sustainable livelihood capitals (Human, Social, Physical, Financial, and Natural) were improved in each model we determined, and agroforestry multi-functionally increased food security ensuring 94% yearly food sufficiency, and 6% sufficiency for two-thirds of the year according to the response variables. This study depicted various prospects for livelihood enhancement and food security concerning diverse agroforestry models.