Agroforestry is defined as a farming system that integrates annual and perennial crops in time and space within a given parcel of land.  The annual crops can be any agronomic or horticultural crop, while the perennial crops could include any woody plants ranging from timber and pulpwood crops, fruit, fiber, industrial, and oil crops.  In some cases, livestock and aquatic resources are integrated in agroforestry systems. Some farmers in the Philippines and in many parts of Southeast Asia have practiced integrating fruit trees with annual crops in multistoried systems such as those of Southern Tagalog and the home gardens of Java since the ancient times.

Agroforestry systems vary in form and structure, depending on the following factors: dominant crop and associated perennial and annual crops; the spatial allocation of annuals and perennials; the degree of vertical layering or stratification of plant forms; the horizontal patterns (random, mosaic or regular); and patterns. Shading becomes an important limiting factor through time and space.

Priority R&D concerns of the commodity include the following:

• Tree Domestication in Agroforestry
• Tree-crop Interphase Farming Systems
• Integration of Agroforestry Schemes to Community Forest Management
• Enhancing Capability of  Upland Farmers to Design Agroforestry
• Multiplication on-Farm Studies to Determine Applicability of Agroforesty Systems to various Site Conditions
• Documentation of the Biological and Physical Processes of Agroforestry Systems
• Documentation Evaluation of indigenous/Traditional Agroforestry Systems
• Piloting of Post-harvest Processes in Upland Communities
• Livestock Integration in Agroforestry Systems
• Agroforestry Technology Impact Assessment
• Socio-economics of Agroforestry Products
• Marketing of Agroforestry Products
• Policy Studies