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It is sufficiently clear that any increase in food production has to come primarily from raising the productivity of existing agricultural land rather than bringing more area under agriculture or horticulture.
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Therefore, agro forestry should become an important land use system, even in degraded soils, so that we not only meet the food and wood requirement of the people, but also protect this good earth from environmental hazards.
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In agro forestry systems, many options are available combining horticulture like agri -horti, horti—silvi, horti—pasture which combine horticultural crops with trees, pasture and agricultural crops. Among these horti-silvipastoral system appears to be one of the most efficient system for soil management.
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This encompasses any and all techniques that attempt to establish or maintain forests, horticultural crops, forage trees and pasture grasses on the same piece of land. It aims at systematically developing land use systems and practices where the positive interaction between trees and crops is maximized and seeks to achieve a more productive, sustainable and diversified output from the land than is possible with the conventional mono-cropping systems.
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In this system fruits and vegetable crops provide seasonal revenue, while forest trees are managed at 5 to 10 years rotation to give returns from timber, fuel wood and fodder. Horti-silvipastoral land use is considered to be an effective method of soil management satisfying multiple needs of farm families.
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It offers a number of advantages:
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This system has higher employment potential being labour intensive.
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As a conservation farming system can help in the control of erosion in catchment.
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It is an excellent substitution for shifting cultivation in vogue in north-east region.
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Degraded lands can be renovated by this integrated management system.
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It has potential to increase productivity under rainfed condition and provides stability in income.
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Inclusion of drought hardy fruit tree component can ensure regular income in drought prone area.
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In this system Ber, Pomegranate, Aonla, Mango, Annona, Jamun, tamarind, Gonda, Mahua and Karonda as fruit trees; Acacia tortalis, Albizia amara, Leucena leucocephala, Eucalyptus spp. as forest trees and Cenchrus ciliaris, Cenchrus setigerus and Stylosanthes hamata as grass component have been found highly useful under rainfed semi arid conditions.
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In this case plantation of Ber, Mango and Guava using staggered contour trenches, with forest spp. like Leucaena leucocephala and Eucalyptus in highly degraded soil with Cenchrus ciliaris on gully rim and vegetable crops like Cowpea, Okra, Clusterbean and Brinjal in interface between fruit trees have been quite successful under rainfed conditions of Panch Mahal district of central Gujarat.
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Some of the other successfully tested agro forestry systems including horticulture like peach with turmeric, Eureka lemon with chillies and mandarin with ginger in Doon Valley; aerable crops with Mango, Guava, Cashewnut, Acid Lime and Sweet Orange in Andhra Pradesh; Eucalyptus with Aonla, Ber and Guava in Faizabad (U.P.); ‘Coorg’ mandarin with Casurina and Paddy in Karnataka; pastoral system under Apple, Almond, Pear and Plum with Festuca pretense, Dactylia glomerata and red and white clover in J and K and Pineapple with Alnus nepalensis and Stylosanthes hamata in Shillong have been found successful.
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All these systems need large scale testing for soil management strategy and value addition to degraded areas before adoption.
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