Fruit Based Agroforestry Systems for Drylands

Abstract

Crop production on drylands in general and marginal rainfed lands in particular results in low and unstable, and often times uneconomic yields because of aberrant monsoon behavior. Poor management of marginal lands results in land degradation. It is estimated that nearly 65 m.ha out of 98 m.ha under rainfed cultivation are facing some kind of land degradation or the other. These marginal lands are not able to sustain arable crops particularly during the drought years. Therefore there has been thinking to develop some alternate land use systems for these lands. Tree component in dryland agriculture increases production and income, besides imparting stability to the farming system. Fruit trees, apart from the above advantages also yield valuable bye products like fodder, and fuel wood, through their annual prunings and fruits, which are supposed to improve and maintain good health of human beings. Among the alternate land use system developed, dryland horticulture and agri-horticulture system (fruit based agroforestry systems) are readily picked up by the farmers due to cash benefits derived from these system. Agri-horticulture system or horti-pastoral system is one form of agroforestry where the tree component is a fruit tree. Agroforestry is a collective term for systems of land use in which woody plants (trees and shrubs) are deliberately combined on the same land management unit with herbaceous crops in some form of spatial arrangement.