This document provides an overview of agroforestry based on observations from a tour of western India. It discusses the definition and principles of agroforestry, noting that it integrates trees and shrubs with agriculture to enhance productivity and sustainability. Examples of agroforestry models are provided. The document also summarizes the environmental, economic and social benefits of agroforestry, including increased food production, higher incomes, better nutrition, and improved ecosystem services. Specific observations from visiting an agroforestry plot in Anand, Gujarat are also presented.

1. Agroforestry : Tour Observations
(Western India Tour)
Presented to :
C.L. Dhumal Sir
Course Director
Presented By:
Arjun Kushwah
(RFO Trainee Batch 2019-20)
Roll No. 02

2. Points to be covered..
Role of
Agroforestry
with respect
to
environment
Agroforestry
farm visited
during tour
Why Anand
Specially?
Its role in
upliftment
of farmer’s
income
Gujarat
Model and
Its schemes
and
initiatives

3. Agroforestry: An Introduction
• Agroforestry : Agriculture + Forestry
• Agroforestry is defined as a land use system which
integrate trees and shrubs on farmlands and rural
landscapes to enhance productivity, profitability,
diversity and ecosystem sustainability.
• As a science : Agroforestry shares principles
with intercropping.
• Both place two or more plant species (such
as nitrogen-fixing plants) in close proximity and both
provide multiple outputs. As a consequence, overall
yields are higher and because a single application or
input is shared, costs are reduced.

4. Agroforestry: An Introduction
• Agroforestry is the smart integration of trees into farming
systems.
• Unlike full-sun fields, vulnerable and contributing to
ecosystems degradation, agrofrestry is a way to preserve
productive ecosystems and adapt to climate change.
• Different agroforestry models
trees integrated
in the perimeter
of fields
Trees
intercropped
Tree at landscape level

5. Agroforestry : Why significant?
• According to FAO(Food and Agriculture
organizations, United Nations) facts :
– More than 7 billion people populated the Earth in
2011 and this number is expected to go up to 9.3
billion by the mid-century. To meet the demand for
food by 2050, production will have to increase by over
60%.
– These figures, coupled with current problems borne
out of past and existing non-sustainable land
use practices, provide the case for changing the way
we manage lands and our production of agricultural
and tree goods.

6. Agroforestry: Indian Scenario and
Policies
• Agroforestry began to attain prominence in the late 1970s, when the international
scientific community realized its potentials in the tropics and recognized it as a
practice in search of science.
• Major policy initiatives, including
– National Forest Policy 1988,
– National Agriculture Policy 2000,
– Planning Commission Task Force on Greening India 2001,
– National Bamboo Mission 2002,
– National Policy on Farmers, 2007 and
– Green India Mission 2010,
emphasize the role of agroforestry for efficient nutrient cycling, organic matter addition for
sustainable agriculture and for improving vegetation cover. However, agroforestry has not
gained the desired importance as a resource development tool due to various
factors.
• A policy which deals with problems faced by agroforestry sector, including adverse
policies, weak markets and a dearth of institutional finance was approved by the
Cabinet in February 2014.
• India became the world's first country to adopt a comprehensive agroforestry
policy.

7. Agroforestry: Types of Agroforestry

8. Agroforestry: Types of Agroforestry
(i) Agrisilvicultural: This system involves
simultaneously growing crops and trees on
the same piece of land. Some commonly
used agrisilviculture systems include alley
cropping and hedgerow cropping.

9. Agroforestry: Types of Agroforestry
(ii) Silvopastoral: This system involves raising
livestock on improved pastures grown in
association with trees. Some commonly used
systems are alley farming and live fences

10. Agroforestry: Types of Agroforestry
(iii) Agrisilvopastoral: This system involves a
three-way mixture based on a combination of
crops, trees. and animals. Such a system
requires skillful management, and can be
sustainable even in harsh environments and
fragile soils.

11. Agroforestry: Preferable Charectersitcs
• Desirable characteristics of species
– Easily established: require minimum labour for planting and
maintenance.
– Fast growing: benefits become available to the farm family as soon as
possible.
– Good sprouting: hedgerows continue to grow regularly after pruning.
– Nitrogen fixing: leguminous (nitrogen-fixing) species can contribute to
crop nutrition.
– Heavy and palatable foliage: provide more green manure and
acceptable fodder.
– Deep root system: nutrients and water are drawn from lower soil
layers.
– Easy to propagate: generally, growing hedgerows from seed requires
less labour than vegetative propagation.
– Adaptable to close spacing: hedgrows require dense planting.

12. Agroforestry: Preferable Species
Species Climate Other uses
Acacia nilotica arid, semiarid
tropics
beverage, fuelwood
Azadirachta indica semiarid
tropics
timber, lumber,
manure, essential
oils, fuelwood
Casuarina equisetifolia humid tropics fuelwood, timber
Eucalyptus
camaldulensis
humid tropics fuelwood, timber
Gliricidia sepium humid tropics food, fuelwood,
poles, fodder
Grevillea robusta subhumid
tropics, humid
tropics
timber, fuelwood,
building materials
Leucaena leucocephala humid
subtropics,
humid tropics
fuelwood, poles
timber fodder
Sesbania grandiflora humid tropics fodder, fuelwood,
food
Species Climate Other uses
Acacia tortillis semiarid tropics fuelwood
Albizia lebbek humid tropics,
semiarid tropics
fuelwood, timber
Calliandra calothyrsus humid tropics lumber, fuelwood
Dalbergia sissoo semiarid tropics timber, fuelwood
Gliricidia sepium humid tropics food, fuelwood, poles
Leucaena leucocephala humid subtropics,
humid tropics
fuelwood, poles, crop
shade, timber
Prosopis cineraria semiarid tropics,
arid tropics
windbreak
Sesbania grandiflora humid tropics fuelwood, food
Ziziphus mauritiana semiarid tropics,
subhumid tropics
food, shade

13. Problems can be resolved by Agroforestry

14. Agroforestry : Benefits
Economic
Benefits
Social
Benefits
Environmental
Benefits

15. Agroforestry : Benefits
• Environment Benefits: Combining trees with food crops on cropland farms
yield certain important environment benefits, both general ecological
benefits and specific on-site benefits. The general ecological benefits include:
– Reduction of pressure on forest.
– More efficient recycling of nutrients by deep-rooted trees on the site.
– Better protection of ecological systems.
– Reduction of surface run-off, nutrient leaching and soil erosion through
impending effect of tree roots and stems of these processes.
– Improvement of microclimate, such as lowering of soil surface temperature and
reduction of evaporation of soil moisture through a combination of mulching and
shading.
– Increment in soil nutrients through addition and decomposition of litter-fall.
– Improvement of soil structure through the constant addition of organic matter
from decomposed litter.

16. Agroforestry : Benefits
• Economic Benefits: Agroforestry systems on croplands/farmlands bring
significant economic benefits to the farmer, the community, the region or the
nation. Such benefits may include:
– Increment in an maintenance of outputs of food, fuelwood, fodder, fertilizer and
timber;
– Reduction in incidence of total crop failure, common to single-cropping or
monoculture system; and
– Increase in levels of farm incomes due to improved and sustained productivity.
• Social Benefits: Besides the economics benefits, social benefits occur from
increase in crop and tree product yields and in the sustainability of these
products. These benefits include:
– Improvement in rural living standards from sustained employment and higher
incomes;
– Improvement in nutrition and health due to increased quality and diversity of food
outputs; and
– Stabilization and improvement of upland communities through elimination of the
need to shift sites of farm activities.

17. Agroforestry : Role in Environment
Environmental
Sustainability
Climate
Change
Mitigation
Economic
Sustainability

18. Agroforestry: Environmental Sustainability

19. Agroforestry: Climate Change Mitigation

20. Agroforestry : Role in Environment
• Role Of Agroforestry In Climate Change
Mitigation
=> It was reported by FAO that reduced
deforestation, forest regeneration, increased
plantations development and agroforestry accounts
for 12 to 15% of global sequestration of carbon
emission from fossil fuels.

21. Sequestration of carbon emission
• Process involved in carbon capture and the
long-term storage of atmospheric carbon
dioxide.
Schematic showing both
terrestrial and geological
sequestration of carbon dioxide
emissions from a coal-fired
plant.

22. Agroforestry : Role in Environment
• Role Of Agroforestry In Economic Sustainability
– When the system of agroforestry is properly enhanced and place in
the right perspectives by all environmental stakeholders, this will
help in addressing some issues of economic instability in the country.
– Trees in agroforestry system are known to provide fuel wood, food,
shelter, drugs, income, raw materials and improvement of soil fertility
for crop growth.
– As well as wide range of environmental protection, the products
and services forest product provides are essential to every aspect of
life.
– A survey on the economics of some forest fruit trees and found out
that harvesting, processing and marketing of products from economic
forest trees plays an important role in food security, employment and
income generation.

23. Agroforestry: Observations During
Tour
Resource Person : A S Prajapati (RFO, Anand Range)

24. Agroforestry: Observations During
Tour
Plot visited during tour
Plot owner Mr. Gowardhan

25. Agroforestry Plantation : Anand
 Nilgiri Plantation
 1000 plants per hectare

26. Agroforestry: Observations During
Tour
• In Anand Range of Gujrat State
• Plantation of Eucalyptus on Vacant lands of NRI
owners
• 1000 plants per hectare
• Maintenance till 3 years is done by Forest
department.
• At present 40 beneficiary
– 1 hect from one beneficiary
• Increased the tree cover of Gujrat State.

27. Farmer’s Document in Scheme

28. Why Anand?
• Anand, a non forest district in central Gujarat has good
canal irrigation, which has turned it into one of the
greenest districts in India with highest density of trees in
the non forest areas.
• Productivity is optimised in all three sectors-agriculture,
animal husbandry and agro-forestry
• As per the recent tree counting, about 20.12 million trees
grow with highest density of 68.4 trees per hectare which is
four times the average tree density in the entire state
• Anand is also famous for Non Timber Forest Produce as
huge quantity of Aonla is exported to other states in India
Src:
https://forests.gujarat.gov.in/w
ritereaddata/images/pdf/7_Ag
ro-Forestry-in-Gujarat.pdf

29. Agroforestry: Profit to farmer
• 12000 subsidy to the farmers by Forest
department of Gujrat.
• 1.5 lack monetary profit of Eucalyptus in
commercial market, that too goes to farmer
• Approximately zero maintenance cost. (Forest
department bears till 3 years)
• Farmer can harvest Nilgiri 4 times => 1
plantation + 3 Coppices
• This has doubled the income of farmers

30. Agroforestry: Gujrat Model
• In Gujarat, forest cover is relatively low but tree cover-Trees Out-side
Forest (TOF) is the second highest amongst the major Indian states.
• the government of Gujarat adopted a new approach more than four
decades ago, and in 1969-70, Social Forestry was born as a People’s
Programme for planting trees outside the forest lands.
• Social forestry divisions, first in the country, were established in the State.
With this initiative, the State became the pioneer in social forestry in the
world.
• Status of the TOF
– Total number of trees in the non forest areas in 2003 was 251.0 million which
increased to 268.7 million in 2009.
– Of the total TOF, about 71.3% were on private lands - farmland and orchards
(agro-forestry).
– Seven districts - Anand, Tapi, Gandhinagar, Mahesana Valsad, Surat and Kheda
have tree densities over 30 trees/ha
– Tree cover in the non forest area was 7,837 sq. km. in 2011 .
Src:
https://forests.gujarat.gov.in/writereaddata/images/pdf/7_Agro-Forestry-in-Gujarat.pdf

31. Agroforestry: Gujrat Model
• At present, nine species –
– Neem (Azadirachta indica),
– Deshi babool (Acacia nilotica),
– Nilgiri (Eucalyptus sp.),
– Sharu (Casuarina sp.),
– Ardusa (Ailanthus sp.),
– Teak (Tectona grandis),
– Subabool (Leucanea leucocephola),
– Bengali babool (Acacia auriculiformis)
– Bamboo
are dominant and they are economic species in agro-forestry plantations.
• In tour we observed Nilgiri (Eucalyptus sp.) plantation.
• Anand Range is also working with Ardusa (Ailanthus sp.).
• Neem, deshi babool and ardusa are the three main tree species in the agro-
forestry plantations in north Gujarat.

32. The agro-forestry schemes and
incentives
• (i) Quality planting stock (clonal and tissue
cultureplants):
– Gujarat Forest Department has taken initiatives in
2010 to establish high quality seedlings
production centres at over a dozen sites to
increase productivity and yield of wood in agro-
forestry. A tissue culture lab for production of teak
seedlings has been established at Gandhinagar.
About ten centres for clonal Ecucalyptus and three
sites for conal Casuarina plant production have
become operational in 2011.

33. The agro-forestry schemes and
incentives
(ii) Supply of seedlings: About 90 million seedlings were
supplied annually at nominal charges under Van Mahotsav
programme, and about half of them were planted by the farmers
on their lands and the rest was distributed among industries,
institutions, cooperatives, schools, individuals and other such
sectors.
(iii) Rehabilitation of degraded farm land: Forest Department
supports small and marginal farmers to take up plantation on
their lands, especially degraded lands. During the last decade,
on an average, about 9,500 ha of the farm lands are planted
every year at the cost of the Government. In addition to the cost
of plantation, assistance is also provided for three years as a part
of subsidy.

34. The agro-forestry schemes and
incentives
(iv) Farm forestry in Dangs: A scheme to raise teak plantation on tribal’s land was
implemented in the Dangs district. This scheme has been modified in 2012. Under this scheme,
tree crop will beraised on the tribal’s land at the cost of the Government and a provision for
adequate assistance every month has been kept for the farmer for twenty years. Objective of the
scheme is to restore tree cover on the private lands.
Src:
https://forests.gujarat.gov.in/w
ritereaddata/images/pdf/7_Ag
ro-Forestry-in-Gujarat.pdf

35. The agro-forestry schemes and
incentives
• (v) Farm forestry under MNAREGA: A new
scheme of raising 400 trees per hectare on
farm land using MNAREGA fund has been
initiated in 2011. Subsequently, this scheme
has been accepted by the Government of
India as a part of individual beneficiary
scheme under MNAREGA. About 11,000 ha is
proposed under this scheme in 2012 which
may be scaled up subsequently to over 20,000
ha/year.

36. Thank You