Mango Based Agroforestry Systems in Degraded Foothills of North-western Himalayan Region

Abstract

The investigation (1995 - 1998) indicated that even on degraded land (>68 per cent gravels /boulders) the mango plantation can be established successfully by adopting site specific agrotechniques. The vegetative vigour of mango plantation was better with groundstorey crops as compared to sole planted mango. The effect of mango trees was apparent on Rabi season crop (toria) at the age of fourth year when tree's canopy was about 25 per cent. Among various groundstorey crops tried during Kharif season; urd, cowpea and sesame had given good response while arhar was affected by adverse weather conditions during second year, though it has given maximum dry matter yield (75.97 q/ha) followed by cowpea (27.71 q/ha), urd (17.88 q/ha) and minimum in sesame (12.05 q/ha). The average grain yield of urd, arhar and sesame were 5.78, 3.56 and 2.23 q/ha, respectively. In case of cow pea, 14.49 q/ha green pod yield was recorded. Whereas, during Rabi season, >11 q/ha dry matter and >3 q/ha grain yield of toria was recorded. Economic evaluation of groundstorey component with mango under degraded land suggested that urd – toria was the best combination followed by cowpea-toria and sesame-toria and given B:C ratio of 3.89, 2.69 and 2.50, respectively.