0051-B5

Agroforestry - a viable alternative for social, economic and ecological sustainability

N. R. Gangadharappa, M. Shivamurthy and S. Ganesamoorthi ¹

Abstract

In this era of global warming, fast degradation of land productivity and other environmental hazards, agroforestry is indeed a stake for natural resources and socio-economic sustainability. Agroforestry is found to be the most desirable strategy for maintaining social, economic and ecological sustainability in India. Therefore a study was undertaken in the country to investigate the perception and attitude of farmers towards agroforestry, the crop diversity maintained in agroforestry, the adoption level of agroforestry practices and the socio-economic and ecological impact of agroforestry on the farmers. The findings revealed that farmers had a good perception of, and a favourable attitude towards agroforestry. More than one-third of the farmers (39%) belonged to the high-adoption category when all the agroforestry practices were considered, followed by a smaller percentage of farmers, i.e. 36% and 25% respectively who belonged to low- and medium-adoption level categories. The majority of farmers adopted an agri-silvi-horti-cultural system. The impact of the adoption of agroforestry on the social, economic and ecological conditions of the farmers is significant. Among the social parameters, celebration of festivals, migration and communication exposure were found to contribute more to the total impact of agroforestry on farmers. While among the economic parameters, family income, livestock possession and employment status were found to contribute more to the total impact of agroforestry on farmers. From among the ecological parameters, dependency on forests, groundwater recharge and biomass production were found to contribute more to the total impact of agroforestry on farmers. The results also revealed that the range of crop diversity increased with the increase in area owned by the farmers. The approximate annual returns of agroforestry from one acre (0.405 ha) ranged from Rs23916 (US$598) to Rs31466 (US$786) as compared to original returns of Rs2250 (US$56) to Rs3000 (US$60). The results of the research thus clearly showed that agroforestry can achieve social, economic and ecological sustainability.

Introduction

During the last five decades, since independence, much of the efforts were directed towards the physical accessibility of food. In the 21^st century, ecological access to food might become the most important challenge raising threats towards the existence of mankind. India is one of the 12 mega-diversity areas in the world, and biodiversity constitutes 5 per cent and it is about 2.4% of global land area. This is not a matter of rejoice as because deforestation is also taking place at a rate of 1.5 million ha every year. As a result, serious genetic erosion is taking place wiping out wide varieties of flora and fauna. In addition, extensive and intensive cultivation of crops also resulted in degradation of biodiversity. The biodiversity degradation has intern created multidimensional and multifold problems in the system. All these intern affected the socio-economic and ecological balance of the country. This phenomena made the policy maker and implementers to take appropriate corrective measures. Localized efforts as well as nation wide campaign were started in this regard. Agroforestry emerged as the soul of biodiversity conservation. Agroforestry, essentially a mixed cropping system, implies co-existance of farm and forests which can achieve both natural resources and socio-economic sustainability. Therefore, a research study was undertaken in Karnataka and Kerala, India to know the farmers' perception towards agroforestry, farmers' attitude towards agroforestry and adoption behaviour of agroforestry practices and its impact on socio, economic and ecological sustainability.

Materials and methods

The study was conducted in twenty randomly selected village of Karnataka and Kerala states, India. From each of the 20 selected villages, 10 farmers practicing agroforestry were selected by adopting random sampling procedure. The variable like perception toward agroforestry was measured by using the scale developed by Latha (1990) with little modification. In order to measure the attitude of farmers towards agroforestry, suitable scale was developed by following scientific procedure. Adoption behaviour was measured with the help of the scale developed by Sengupta (1967). Procedure for measuring the impact of agroforestry on social, economic and ecological conditions was also scientifically developed and standardized for this purpose. The validity and reliability of measures were also established and then pre-tested. Interview schedule was used to collect the data from the selected farmers by personal interview method. Each question was explained to the farmers during the course of interview. The onlookers were avoided to a considerable extent throughout the study. The economics of agro-forestry was worked by measuring the output generated from among the twenty randomly selected agroforestry practicing farmers.

Results and Discussion

1. Perception towards agroforestry

With regard to perception of farmers towards agroforestry, the data reveled that the majority of farmers had moderately better perception towards the importance and advantageous of going for agroforestry. This findings can be explained on the basis of the fact that agroforestry itself is relatively new concept for farmers. It may take some more time of better understanding and to acquire more information on the importance of agroforestry. Further, adequate efforts might not have been made by concerned developmental agencies to educate and convince illiterate farmers. The farmers of Kerala possessed medium to higher perception (better to good) towards agroforestry (Table 1.).

2. Attitude toward agroforestry

The results revealed that majority of the farmers had `favorable' attitude towards agroforestry. As majority of the farmers had better level of perception as reported earlier, it is logical that attitude of farmers were also favourable. The farmers of Kerala in general had favourable to more favourable attitude towards homestead agroforestry (Table 2).

3. Adoption behaviour

The adoption pattern of agroforestry practices followed by farmers are presented in Table 3 and they are discussed individually as under.

a. Nursery practices: Several important practices like standard size of seedbed (010m X1m), proportion of sand, soil and farmyard manure for seed bed preparation (1:1:1), depth of seed sowing (medium depth), height of the seed bed for producing seedlings in poly bags (30 cm), age of seedlings for transplanting, time of seed sowing, periodicity of watering the seed bed, chemical used to break dormancy, fertilizer application and weeding the seed bed are better adopted by farmers. Reasons for poor adoption of practices like inoculation with biofertilizers, seed treatment and recommended quantity of fertilizer application is due to lack of complete knowledge and cost involved and their non-availability.

b. Pre-planting practices: Practices like required size of pit of planting, proportion of soil and farm yard manure to fill the pit were adopted by majority of the farmers since all these practices are simple and were guided by field functionaries while they fail to adopt recommended number of seedlings per unit area (not more then 5% of the total area) in the farmland due to lack of knowledge on recommended spacing.

c. Planting Practices: Majority of the farmers have adopted important technologies like planting of seedlings, water dripping near beds after planting, root trimming for better establishment of seedlings, fertilizer application and control of pests/diseases. The reason must be that all these practices are simple, easy to practice and most of the activities were carried out under the supervision of the extension personnel. Some of the complex technologies like dosage of recommended fertilizer application, dosage of chemicals to be used for pest and disease management and removing bottom leaves while planting were not adopted due to lack of knowledge and also field personnel failed to provide right guidance. Pit method of planting was followed by majority of farmers as it was found good for better establishment of seedlings. Pot irrigation was practiced after planting. Among different water harvesting techniques adopted for irrigation, `V' notch method was practiced by majority of farmers as this method is a most efficient in water harvesting and save water without any loss.

d. Silvicultural practices: Farmers failed to adopt Silvicultural management practice mainly because they are ignorant of all such practices like thinning, pruning, pollarding and the time of conducting such operation.

e. Harvesting and marketing practice: Most of the farmers have not adopted the harvesting and marketing technologies for both timber and non timber forest produce. This is due to the fact that farmers were processing a less knowledge on harvesting and marketing technologies and also they resorted to untimely felling of immature trees in order to meet their unexpected financial crisis like marriage, diseases, accidents, etc.

When overall adoption level of agroforestry practices were considered 39 per cent of the farmers belonged to high adoption category while rest of them i.e. 25 per cent and 36 per cent belonged to medium and low adoption categories respectively.

IV. Impact of Agroforestry

I. Social parameters:

The social impact of agroforestry practices on farmers are presented in Table 4 and Fig.1. and they are discussed individually as under.

Festivals: The farmers have started celebrating their festivals colourfully due to increase in annual income from agroforestry.

Food Habits: The data revealed that there was a variation in food habits before and after adopting of agroforestry. With the adoption of agroforestry, farmers have stopped their traditional profession like hunting, gathering forest produces because they themselves started to produce sufficient food grains.

Communication exposure: Adoption of agroforestry nesseciated them to get in contact with field extension functionaries, radio, newspaper etc to gain more information on agroforestry for better adoption.

Migration: Practicing of agroforestry resulted in increased self-employment opportunities through interventions such as nursery raising, mat weaving, basket making etc. This has resulted in gradual decrease in migration.

Nature of occupation: Farmers were involved in hunting and gathering of minor forest produce in the nearby forests/estates for their livelihood before the introduction of agroforestry. Now they have stopped these occupations and are concentrating only in farming.

II. Economic parameter

The economic impact of agroforestry practices on farmers are presented in Table 4 and Fig.2 and 3. and they are discussed individually as under.

a) Family income: With the adoption of agroforestry farmers started getting more income by selling the fruits and timber every year. Subsidiary activities like mat weaving, basket making, honey collection, sheep / goat rearing etc. are also taken up as an integral part of agroforestry which also intern contributed to the increased family income.

b) Employment status: Farmers who used to migrate to other areas in search of employment were reduced to maximum extent as a result of employment generation due to agroforestry which ensure employment throughout the year.

c) Livestock possession: Agroforestry ensured good and cheap fodder, which intern increased the number of livestocks.

d) Supplementary income: One of the uniqueness of integrated farming system in general and agroforestry in particular is the promotion of traditional subsidiary occupation. This is due to the availability of raw materials for these activities. As a result farmers started many subsidiary ventures like basket making, mat weaving, bamboo crafts etc. These subsidiary occupations, naturally added to the total family income generated from the farmers.

e) Farm expenditure: The expenditure incurred by the farmers on the farming has increased marginally, but not significantly.

III. Ecological parameters

The economic impact of agroforestry practices on farmers are presented in Table 4 and Fig.4. and they are discussed individually as under.

a) Biomass production: There is significant increase in biomass production viz. fodder, fuel, timber etc. with the adoption of agroforestry. Fodder species like Glyricidia maculata, Sesbania, Luecaena sp. (Subabul) and other species like techtona grandis, acacia, Azdirachta indica (neem), Cassia siamea, Melia dubia, Casurina sp. (Casuarina) were grown in agroforestry. This combination not only meets the fodder needs of the cattle and timber needs for agricultural implements but also add organic matter to the soil.

b) Groundwater recharge: The findings explicitly indicated that there is a significant improvement in the ground water availability due to tree based farming interventions. Farm pond was one such major interventions made to harvest excess runoff rainwater in agroforestry plots. These farm ponds were located in the upper/ middle catchment of the land, which enhanced the percolation which intern recharge the groundwater table.

c) Dependency on natural forest: Reduction of dependency on the natural forest was observed because agroforestry met the fuel, fodder, fruits, fibre and timber needs of the farmers.

d) Incidence of pest and diseases: The incidence of pests like mealy bugs, termites, shoot and stem borer were reduced as they were preyed upon by birds, who have made their nests in trees and some birds were also attracted by the fruits in the agroforestry plots.

e) Climate changes: There was significant difference in atmospheric temperature, rainfall pattern and celaphic characters before and after the adoption of agroforestry. Possible reason is that tree species might have acted with regard to the modification of micro climatic parameters. Also the tap-root system of various trees acted as a barrier to soil erosion by holding soil particles tightly.

The overall results of this research study has pointed out that the agroforestry can bring significant social, economic and ecological changes that are desirable for the society and hence agroforestry can achieve effectively social, economic and ecological sustainability.

V. Crop diversity

The findings revealed that majority of farmers adopted agriculture cum silviculture cum horticulture system of agroforestry. (Fig. 5)The Karnataka farmers incorporated forest trees such as Tectona grandis, Acacia nilotica, Grevillea robusta, Eucalyptus hybrid, Acacial auriculiformis, Azadirachta indica, Melia dubia, Cassia siamea, Pngamila pinnata, Causuarina equisetifolia, Denrocalamus strictus, Dalbergia catefolia, Pterocarpus marsupune , Albizia lebbek and fodder green manure crops like Sesbania grandiflora, Erythrina indica, Glyricidia maculata, Leucaena leuococephala, Ceiba pentandra and fruit crops like Mangifera indica, Anacardium oxidentale, Zoziphus marutiana, Tamarindus indica and Emlica officinalis. As the nearby forests are declared as reserve forests, farmers started facing acute timber and fuel problems. Therefore majority of the farmers adopted the tree species mainly with a reason to meet their fuel and poles logs demand. Also, majority of the farmers were deprived of irrigation facilities, they opted mixed plantation thinking that such ventures will bring more returns. The agroforestry are unique in Kerala because they are always around the farmers house and hence it is often called as homestead agroforestry. The major crops associated with in the homestead agroforestry system in Kerala are coconut (100%), Banana (99%) vegetables (98%) , Mango (95%), Papaya (90%) Tulasi (85%), Pepper (83%), Glyricidia (83%), Arecanut (79%), Jack (76%), Tamarind (75%), etc. Coconut (Cocos nucifera) with synonym `Kalpavriksha', the tree of heaven is the most dominant plantation crop prevalent in homestead of Kerala. It is popularly known as a benevolent provider of all basic needs. In addition to coconut, perennial plants such as arecanut, mango, jack, pepper, (trailed on any of the trees), tamarind and annuals like banana, solanaceous vegetables, bhendi, amaranthus, tapioca, colocasia, dioscorea, amorphophalllus, ginger, turmeric etc, are grown. All these crops are grown mixed in the coconut garden without any specific row arrangement. Farmers have taken every effort to utilize the both in horizontal and vertical dimensions. Thus, these homesteads consists of multitude of crops representing a multi-tier canopy configuration which ensures a high level of exploitation of environmental resources. The canopy architecture and pattern of component interaction ensure better energy harvesting and soil exploitation. Homesteads of Kerala, who have sacred grooves are integral part of life, culture and folklore traditions of culture. Some kind of divinity is attached to these mini genetic pool, which directly promote the conservation and sustainable utilization of these natural eco-systems. The study also revealed that the range of crop species is low in case of farmers with less area and the range increases with an increase in area. The tendency of agroforestry farmer to incorporate various species in his farm increased as the area increased so as to ensure high level of exploration of environmental resources.

VI. Economics of agroforestry

It is found that farmers were earning at an average of $ 800 or Rs. 31466.20 / every year from one acre of agroforestry plot which is much profitable than any traditional crop. The farmers were also able to save surplus money in the bank, which is a healthy sign of economic sustainability.

Conclusion

Since the findings of the study pointed out that there is a scope for improving the perception level and creating more favourable attitude of farmers towards agroforestry, development functionaries can intensify their efforts to achieve the increased perception and attitude level of farmers. It was found that there was a big gap in full adoption of all recommended agroforestry practices. In order to bridge this, development agencies should further intensify the extension activities to motivate and adopt all the practices. The agroforestry has brought improvement in socio-economic and ecological conditions of farmers by generating employment, increasing family income, enhancing the crop diversity and reducing dependency on natural forest. Therefore, development agencies can use the success story of agroforestry to stimulate other farmers to attain both natural resource and socio-economic sustainability.

References

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Table 1. Perception level of farmers towards agroforestry

Table 2. Attitude of farmers towards agroforestry

Table 3. Extent of adoption of specific recommended agro-forestry practices by farmers. ( n=200)

Table 4. Social, Economic and Ecological impact of agroforestry on farmers

Table 5. Total impact of agroforestry on farmers

¹ Department of Agricultural Extension, Agricultural College, G.K.V.K., University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore - 560065. India.
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