Tag: Azadirachta indica
Agroforestry: a decade of development (ICRAF’s tenth anniversary 1977-1987)
Throughout the world, at one period or another in its history, it has been the practice to cultivate tree species and agricultural crops in intimate combination. The examples are numerous. It was the general custom in Europe, at least until the Middle Ages, to clear-fell derelict forest, burn the slash, cultivate food crops for varying periods on the cleared areas, and plant or sow tree species before, along with, or after the sowing of the agricultural crop. This “farming system” is, of course, no longer popular in Europe. But it was still widely followed in Finland up to the end of the last century, and was being practised in a few areas in Germany as late as the 1920s (King, 1968). In tropical America, many societies have traditionally simulated forest conditions in their farms in order to obtain the beneficial effects of forest structures. Farmers in Central America, for example, have long imitated the structure and species diversity of tropical forests by planting a variety of crops with different growth habits. Plots of no more than one-tenth of a hectare contained, on average, two dozen different species of plants each with a different form, together corresponding to the layered configuration of mixed tropical forests: coconut or papaya with a lower layer of bananas or citrus, a shrub layer of coffee or cacao, tall and low annuals such as maize, and finally a spreading ground cover of plants such as squash (Wilken, 1977).
Azadirachta indica and Prosopis cineraria species contribution to agroforestry/ tree cover in arid region of Rajasthan
In the arid region of Rajasthan, Prosopis cineraria (Khejri) and Azadirachta indica (Neem) are the major tree species found growing on farmlands. These species are known as lifeline of the desert and have both multiple uses including fuelwood and medicinal values. The accurate mapping of these species is essential for knowing their contribution in green tree cover and carbon storage at district level. Six districts of Rajasthan were selected for mapping agroforestry and these two species. Khejri and Neem trees have been identified with the help of high resolution multispectral LISS IVdata and mapped by applying object oriented classification technique. The agroforestry area under two species was mapped using the Object Based Image Analysis(OBIA) approach. Total agroforestry area was estimated to be 7.99 percent in six districts of Rajasthan. In Pali district,agroforestry accounted for 8.05 percent of the geographical area. Out of the agroforestry area,the Khejri and Neem species accounted for 1.10 and 2.13 percent,respectively.Incase of Ajmer district,the agroforestry area comes out to be 6.90 percent,out of which Khejri and Neem species accounted for 1.83 and 2.55 percent,respectively.It can be concluded that both Prosopis cineraria and Azadirachta indica species have a good contribution to green tree cover vis-à-vis carbon storage in the study districts of Rajasthan.