Study of Agroforestry System and Socio Economic Status of Farmer in Leparada dist of Arunachal Pradesh

Agroforestry has along tradition in Arunachal Pradesh, where trees are integrated in the crops and livestock production systems according to agro-climatic and other prevailing conditions. These systems are managed indigenously, with practices having been evolved by the farmers through trial and error overlong periods of time Rai S N & Proctor J, (1986). Farmers usually plant trees in their traditional agroforestry systems in pursuit of their livelihood goals of income generation, risk management, household food security and optimal use of available land, labour and capital Arnold JEM & Dewees PAA, (1999). A great number of different traditional grain crops, rhizomatous crops, pineapple and vegetables are being grown with a number of fruits and other trees in their traditional systems, which are valuable for the farmers’ everyday life. Traditional cropping patterns also vary among the communities, since they have evolved in response to prevailing soil and climatic conditions and social and ethological preferences Ruthenberg H, (1976). The age, gender and socio-cultural status are the most frequently used proxies for household preferences Pattanayak SK, Mercer DE, Sills E & Yang J, (2003). The farmers of Arunachal Pradesh are not ready to adopt modern agroforestry as it is considerably more complex than traditional agriculture Arunachalam A, Khan ML & Arunachalam K, (2002). The tribesmen have also their own ways of identifying, classification and judicious uses of traditional ethnobotanical plants. Ethnobotanical uses of plants in Arunachal Pradesh have been reported Tewari KC, Majumdar R & Bhatiacharjee S, (1978) and Sabat BC, (2003). Arunachal Pradesh harbours ca. 500 plant species of medicinal and pharmacological significance. A detail study of community wise survey is required as this may provide a meaningful way for the promotion of the traditional knowledge. The medicinal plants used by Nyishi community of Arunachal Pradesh has also been reported but the ethnobotanical plants in traditional agroforests and their indigenous uses has not yet been explored and categorized for any community of Arunachal Pradesh Tag H, Das AK & Loyi H, (2007) and Murtem G & Das AK, (2005).

Large number of studies on wild edible plants and related topic of various states of Northeastern India had been carried out by many researchers (Arora, 1981; Singh and Singh, 1985; Singh et al., 1988; Maikhuri and Gangwar, 1993; Borthakur, 1996; Sundriyal et al., 1998; Sundriyal and Sundriyal, 2003; Kumar, 2003; Samati, 2004; Sundriyal et al., 2004; Kayang, 2007; Tiwari et al., 2010) however, such study on various tribes of Arunachal Pradesh in general (Haridasan et al., 1990; Murtem, 2000; Kohli, 2001; Kar, 2004, 2005; Angami et al., 2006) is meager and on Adi tribe is lacking. Due to various physical barriers they have been leading practically a life of seclusion thereby preserving their traditional knowledge intact. So, documentation of their traditional knowledge on cultivated crops, semi-domesticated and wild vegetable plants become a prerequisite. Keeping the gap in consideration, present study was carried out which provide valuable information on cultivated crops, semi-domesticated and wild plants of East Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India.