I woke up early in the morning when light penetrated my eyelids very softly. Uff! It was already 6 am then I threw my blanket and went outside of my room. I stared at my farm for a while from the balcony. Meanwhile, my mother yelled me to have breakfast. After having breakfast, I went to our maize field to bring grasses for my cows. I thought, it was easier for me to cut small tree rather than cutting grass for hours. I cut down a small tree of Ficus semicordata. After cutting down, I noticed that there was a nest of bird with eggs. Shit! Both the eggs were found to be cracked. That day, the cow enjoyed the fodder I brought. At the evening, my father told that each cow gave almost half liter more milk. Immediately, my mother pointed me and said, it was me who feed the cow and asked me to do every day.

Thereafter, I started to exploit fodder trees of our farm each day to feed the cows and to get more milk. After about 3 months, there were no any trees in our farm. The grasses were drying up due to seasonal change and I was compelled to travel hours to fetch fodder to my cow.

Damn! Hours of struggle just to bring fodder for the livestock made me frustrated. I was doing all these just for few liters more milk. When my mother called me to have food at one evening, I frankly told her that I was no longer interested to fetch fodder. My mother asked the reason and asked further that who would feed those cattle if I don’t?  I replied her in very bullshit manner to hire a guy to take care of her cattle. I’m not a cowboy just looking after cows all the time and bringing food for them. I did have my own business, I told her in very ignorant way. There was some discordant between us. My mother slapped me and told me never to ignore her as I was only son of them.

That evening the milk was not as sweet as before and very few amount of food quenched my hunger. I slept with much tensed mind. It was the first time when my mother slapped me as perhaps it was the very first time I had ever ignored her. Oh! It was a terrible nightmare. Shit!         It was just 3 of morning. I tried to sleep but couldn’t. It was almost 6 when I left my bed.

I went to our farm without having breakfast and observed those dead stumps made by me. There was like absence of something more important in the field. I thoroughly observed the atmosphere, there was no sweet twittering of birds, I suddenly remembered those cracked eggs of birds and, there were no rustling movement of leaves as well. Actually, the natural worthiness of our farm was lost somewhere else and I thought that if I had not cut down all those trees of our terraces, I wouldn’t have to go for hours just to search for fodder. Suddenly, I realized the productivity of land was slightly declined due to lack of leaf litter composting in the field. My mom was complaining that she noticed little decline in production of maize this year in comparison to past years. Now I realized that the grasses were dried sooner this year because of cutting the trees. The grasses were exposed directly to the skin burning sun. Now, I took a determination of making my farm green again because I wanted to increase the productivity and again to hear the sweet sound of bird and rustling movements of leaves again.  I finally wanted to make my parents happy again by making cows more productive.

I went to district forest and district agriculture offices of my district. I took information about the tree species that can be incorporated in different agricultural system. The day, I came to know that use of trees in agricultural cultivation in mutual benefit of trees and crops that satisfies the needs of farmers is called as agro forestry. As I was an ordinary and rural youth and the term was strange for me and had heard just now although we were practicing it for years.

The officers provided me some very suitable species of tree species whose fodder were highly nutritive and were able to improve soil fertility as well. I took those species from nursery and planted in the terrace at the evening.

The sweet sound of birds, their nest, scene of young birds just starting to fly, movement of leaves delights me these days. The trees are grown up. When my mother told me production is augmenting these years, I see a perfect coordination of forestry and agriculture crops. Finally, I start to think, trees are the homes of thousands of creatures helping to increase agricultural production. They feed us as well. Trees provide us oxygen and absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide and ultimately assist us to be healthy. In this way, trees are our life because we exist if our woody friends, trees exist.