Page 158 - Agroforestry system - book inner (final corrected) - 9.-3-21_Neat

National level e-symposium on “Agroforestry system for augmenting livestock
productivity and empowering resource poor rural farmers”

S4 – 4

Evaluation of Apple-based agroforestry system for biomass production and carbon
stockpiling in temperate region of North-Western Himalaya, India

Shiba Zahoor , Vaishnu Dutt, A.H. Mughal, Nazir A. Pala, K.N. Qaisar and P.A. Khan
1*
1 Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir-1900245, India
* Corresponding author e-mail: Shibazahoor11@gmail.com
Introduction

A worldwide temperature alteration and related issues of climate change have pressed the need for a
reasonable land use framework that is more productive and more sustainable to guarantee food security (Lal,
2004; Srinidhi et al., 2007 FOA, 2016). Agroforestry as a conventional land use framework and resource
management has a huge potential to guarantee livelihood security by providing ecosystem services like food,
fodder, fuel wood, fruit, timber and various other non-timber forest products, besides their ability to provide
environment services i.e., watershed protection, carbon sequestration and relief of the antagonistic effect of
climate change (Nair et al., 2009; Smith, 2010; Nair and Garrity, 2012; Bijalwan, 2012; Dagar et al., 2014;
Dhyani et al., 2016; Islam and Quli, 2016; Quli et al., 2017).

Materials and Methods
The apple-based agroforestry system was chosen for this study, since apple trees are of incredible
financial significance in Kashmir region of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India and majority of the farmers
lean towards this species for their plantations. The study will be helpful to decide the capability of apple based
agroforestry land use system with respect to biomass, soil organic carbon and total ecosystem carbon stock
and can be valuable in providing data to policy makers and farmers for effective and successful management in
carbon budgeting and climate change moderation of the temperate region of Kashmir Himalayan ecosystem.
The study area is located in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir, India, which lies in central part of
Kashmir, located between 34 16ʹ44ʹʹN latitude and 74 46ʹ31ʹʹE longitude with an elevation range
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from 1720 to 1843 m above mean sea level. The experimental plots were laid in farmer’s field which is located
near Faculty of Forestry, Ganderbal, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of
Kashmir (J and K), where it was convenient for us to record the daily (Zahoor, 2017). For conducting the
study four intercrops viz., rajmash (Phaseolus vulgaris), green gram (Vigna radiata), french bean (P. vulgaris)
and oats (Avena sativa) were intercropped with 11-year-old plantation of apple. For conducting this study,
seven treatments, viz., apple + rajmash and oats (T ), apple + french bean and oats (T ), apple + green gram
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and oats (T ), control rajmash and oats (T ), control french bean and oats (T ),control green gram and oats
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3
5
(T ) and control only apple (T ) were selected. For estimation of biomass of crops, RBD (factorial) design
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with 70 treatment combination {7 (treatments) x 5 (replications) x 2 (distances from tree base)} and for soil
organic and carbon stock RBD (factorial) with 35 treatment combinations {7 (treatments) x 5 (replications)}
were applied to observe the difference. R-software by Gomez and Gomez (1984) was used to perform all the
statistically analysis.

Institute of Animal Nutrition, Centre for Animal Production Studies, TANUVAS
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development 139