Contribution of Agroforestry Tree Species in Vindhyan Region of Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract
As the population of India is increasing at avery fast rate; the land-holding size of farmers shrink at avery fast rate and agroforestry is the only way to optimize the farm productivity. The trees play an important role in fulfilling daily needs of people. The Eastern part of Uttar Pradesh in India is in great deficit of tree plantations on agriculture lands. Agroforestry is only way for growing trees on available lands in block/boundary plantations, thus, reducing pressure on forests for tree based needs in day-to-day life. As per latest report of FSI, 2021, only 9.23 % (6.18 % forest and 3.05 % Tree cover outside forests) area is covered with trees in the state of Uttar Pradesh. In Vindhyan region, total 15489782 trees were enumerated, where highest (2509795) number of trees were found in 121-150 cm girth class, followed by 2283850 trees in 151-180 cm girth class and 1996340 trees in 91-120 cm girth class Similarly, Eucalyptus tree possessed highest contribution (18.29%), followed by Mango(15.1%), Teak (14.34%) and Neem (13.83 %) .The smallest (629466) no. of trees were found in 271-300 cm followed by 756034 in 0-30 cm class. It clearly indicates that overall there is urgent need of time to plant these species indifferent agroforestry models to overcome wide demand supply gap of traditional tree species like, desi Mango, Neem, Teak, Eucalyptus, Mahua and Shisham. Similarly, new species, like Mahogany, Melia, Gamhar and Chironji may be planted in various agroforestry combinations in view of their great economic value. In recent past, Mahogany gave a good response in the region and 44358 no. of trees were found in 0-30 cm girth class in respective districts. Like Gamhar was also seen in some villages with 7747 no. of trees in 0-30 cm girth class in studied districts. The condition of Mahua planting is alarming as being a slow growing species, only 6798 no. of trees were found in 0-30 cm girth class. In new species, Melia dubia istaking good place, as 28646 trees were found in 0-30 cm class in villages. Chironji trees were rare in Mirzapur and Sonbhadra district and completely absent in Prayagraj district. In a total, only 4480 Chironji trees were recorded in the Vindhyan region. The girth class wise trees in Vindhyan region depicted that in 271-300 girth class, minimum number of trees were existing followed by 0-30 cm girth class and 31-60 cm class. This is clear that old trees were harvested at very fast rate for most of the species and less young plantations showed that these established and new tree species should be planted at fast rate in agroforestry so as to maintain their sustainable availability.
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Introduction
There are several challenges that reap the benefits of agroforestry in India. There is shortage of superior planting material and improved seed varieties (Verma et al., 2017). In India, just as there is a great diversity in climate similarly there exists a large number of agroforestry systems of various forms and types (Dagar et al., 2014). As the population of India is increasing at avery fast rate; the land-holding size of farmers shrink at avery fast rate and agroforestry is the only way to optimize the farm productivity (National Agroforestry Policy, 2014). Growing trees outside forests (ToF) presents a significant environmental and economic opportunity in India. Nearly 80 million hectares (Mha) of these trees could sequester 3.4 gigatons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (Gt CO2e) by 2040 to help India achieve its international climate commitments. It can also support food and livelihood security for rural India, especially for its poor and vulnerable groups (Duraisami et al. 2022). The alternatives of energy have been generated but still the wood energy is a prime energy source in domestic sector. The contribution of biomass is 14% of the world energy and 38% in developing countries (Dagar et al., 2014). These changes in ecology and economics through on-farm trees are well documented and traditionally been followed. The wood demand has increased by over 60% and the output from forests has reduced to half in the same period. It is because of the dramatic rise of outputs from plantation and farm forestry, if has been reduced by over 50%. In the private sector, more than 50% of industrial timber is being contributed by agroforestry. The community lands share major part of the annual 250 million tons of fuel consumption (FSI, 2021). The trees play an important role in fulfilling daily needs of people. The Eastern part of Uttar Pradesh in India is in great deficit of tree plantations on agriculture lands. Agroforestry is only way for growing trees on available lands in block/boundary plantations, thus, reducing pressure on forests for tree based needs in day-to-day life. As per latest report of FSI, 2021, only 9.23 % (6.18 % forest and 3.05 % Tree cover outside forests) area is covered with trees in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The Trees outside forests (TOFs) occur in natural and in cultivated landscapes and serve in a number of ecological and economic functions (Kleinn and Morales, 2005). Trees and other woody plants in the landscape serve also important ecological functions, particularly for the conservation of biodiversity, offering shelter and food, and nesting sites (Waltert et al., 2005); other ecological functions are erosion control, water protection and carbon sequestration (Khadanga and Jaykumar, 2018; Bhardwaj and Panwar, 2003). It is now being increasingly argued that the role of TOF in providing food, wood and fuel to rural masses, carbon sequestration, prevention of soil erosion, biodiversity conservation, checking desertification, establishment of wildlife corridors and microclimatic stabilization, is quite substantial (Bhattarai, 2000) . The share of wood energy from non-forest land used for cooking in rural India is 59% while that of biomass energy is 90% (Saxena, 1997) . After the creation of Uttaranchal State, the forest cover including tree cover in Uttar Pradesh is only 9.20 % (FSI, 2021) of the total geographical area. This forest cover in the state is mainly confined to the Tarai and Vindhyan regions. In Eastern Uttar Pradesh, the forest cover is negligible and mostly in the form of small woodlots and plantations. In this region, due to population explosion, illiteracy, poverty and urbanization, the scope of increase in forest area is very limited. However, the vegetation cover may be increased by adopting social forestry, particularly the agro forestry.
This study shall be helpful in collecting the information regarding needs and suggestions about forestry in eastern U.P. To identify deficit Agroforestry species viz. Melia dubia (Barma drek), Gmelina arborea (Gamhar), Neolamarckia cadamba (Kadamb), Swietenia macrophylla (Mahogany), Dalbergia sissoo (Shisham), Acacia nilotica (Babool), Mangifera indica (Mango), Azadirachta indica (Neem), Madhuca indica (Mahua), Eucalyptus sp. (Safeda), Poplar deltoids (Poplar), Buchanania lanzan (Chironji) and Artocarpus heterophyllus (Kathal) in Vindhyan region of Uttar Pradesh for incorporating them in Agroforestry/ afforestation programmes, this study has been conducted. As forest cover in the districts of Vindhyan region, Prayagraj, Mirzapur and Sonbhadra is 2.36, 18.25 and 36.79 % respectively. In these districts, tree cover area is very negligible and green cover of the region can be increased well by increasing Agroforestry in the rural region. Thus, for making suitable choice of species on the basis of assessment of trees outside forests in the rural area may also give a clear picture of girth class-wise number of existing trees.
Conclusion
The systematic pattern in tree planting needs to be improved for the region. It is well known that western part of U.P. is more flourished than Eastern part for adoption of agroforestry. It is now urgent need of time to adopt tree plantations in massive way in districts of Vindhyan zone to increase green cover in the region and decrease pressure on forests. Agroforestry is the only way for progress of farmers and rural people, leading to sustainable development, food and nutritional security. Agroforestry adoption with suitable recommended species of economic value will improve state / country forest and tree cover to the 33 percent as desired in national forest policy. The foresters, researches, NGOs, tree growers and traders are needed to coordinate for successful implementation of tree plantation in agroforestry at large level. Further, to enhance the efforts of farmers, sale of end products should be strengthened with the involvement of project planners and wood based industries. VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors are thankful to Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehradun for extending financial assistance for the study.
