Melia dubia : An ideal tree for commercial agroforestry

Abstract

Agroforestry or trees outside forests are vital for ensuring environmental resilience in terrestrial
landscapes. In this regard, growing trees on farmlands i.e. agroforestry ensures livelihood security
to the farming communities. Nonetheless, there are a few bottlenecks in the farmers’ adoption
process of agroforestry trees as they ought to be fast-growing, deciduous straight bole, high
market value, assured buyback, and low maintenance cost, etc. On these counts, and based on tree
ideotypes for agroforestry, Melia dubia has both structural and functional traits for agroforestry,
and essentially has market value as well. This study thus demonstrates various benefits of Melia
dubia due to which it is gaining interest among the farmers and emerging as a sustainable and
promising raw material for commercial agroforestry.