A Virgin Islands farmer works on his grapefruit orchard. This agricultural system could be improved with agroforestry techniques.

CSTAF has been awarded a TSTAR grant to study farming practices in the Virgin Islands and develop strategies for improving production through the introduction of agroforestry techniques.

TSTAR, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Tropical and Subtropical Agricultural Research grant, will provide $81,731 for the next two years to fund the research. About $22,000 of the grant will be paid under a subcontract to the University of the Virgin Islands.

CSTAF Assistant Director Michael Bannister is the principal investigator. CSTAF Visiting Assistant Professor Sarah Workman and Manuel Palada, a CSTAF collaborator at the University of the Virgin Islands, are coinvestigators. Eddie Ellis, CSTAF post-doctoral researcher, will perform Geographic Information System analysis for the project.

Key elements of the project include:

• surveying existing on-farm production systems in the Virgin Islands to characterize current production, classify marketable products, and assess capacity of farmer participation in future project activities;

• developing a spatial database using geographic information system techniques to describe the distribution, characteristics and composition of farm products;

• outlining and implementing strategies with landowners for marketing and enterprise development for non-timber forest products such as fruits, and development of value-added products;

• developing enrichment and conservation planting designs with landowners to enhance production of tree and crop products in multi-strata and silvopastoral agroforestry systems; and