Ecological and Economical Appraisal of Apple based Agroforestry Systems in Kullu Valley of Himachal Pradesh
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Date
2022-12-23
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College of Horticulture and Forestry Neri, Hamirpur (H.P.)
Abstract
The study entitled “Ecological and Economical Appraisal of Apple based Agroforestry Systems in Kullu Valley of Himachal
Pradesh” was carried out in apple orchard of Bhindi Bai Village, Bajaura, Kullu. The experiment was laid out in Randomized
Block Design, having nine treatments (sole apple, sole tomato, sole brinjal, sole capsicum, sole black gram, apple + tomato,
apple + brinjal, apple + capsicum and apple + black gram) with three replications in order to assess the biomass, carbon stock,
soil physico-bio-chemical properties and to work out economics of the various tree-crop combinations while for comparing
growth and yield parameters of agricultural crops grown under agroforestry and sole cropping, Student ‘t’ test was employed.
The studies revealed that apple competed with agricultural crops (brinjal, capsicum and black gram) for moisture, nutrients and
other limiting resources which resulted in poor performance (growth and yield) of agricultural crops except for tomato which
performed better as an intercrop. Among all tree + crop combinations, the highest total biomass (44.05 t/ ha) and total carbon
stock (21.73 t /ha) were recorded under apple + tomato. From economics point of view, the maximum (991971 Rs/ha) gross
returns, net returns (566900.96 Rs/ha) and benefit-cost ratio (2.33) were obtained for apple + tomato. Among all the physicochemical
properties, bulk density, particle density, soil porosity, pH and organic carbon were found to be affected significantly
while, the soil moisture remained unaffected. Results also indicated that with increase in soil depth from 0-15 cm to 15-30 cm,
particle density, bulk density and pH increased whereas, reverse trend was observed for porosity, EC, soil moisture and soil
organic carbon. The available N, P and K contents decreased with the increase in soil depth under all treatments. Among all
treatments, the maximum nitrogen and potassium contents were observed under apple + black gram while, the maximum
phosphorus was recorded under apple + brinjal. Microbial biomass and annual flux of C, N and P were recorded the highest
under apple + tomato agroforestry system at both soil depths. However, microbial biomass and flux decreased with the increase
in soil depth. The soil enzymatic activities viz., dehydrogenase, catalase, acid and alkaline phosphatase were also observed
highest under apple + tomato.The improvement in soil physico-chemical properties indicated that the selected tree-crop combinations are sustainable.Agroforestry system integrating fruit tree (apple) with agricultural crops (tomato, brinjal, capsicum and black gram) resulted inhigher biomass production and are potential carbon sinks over agricultural cropping system. Among all the studied tree-cropcombinations, apple + tomato proved as the best combination, the farmer of the area should adopt from ecological and economical point of view.