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Preface
Agroforestry, as an age-old land use system has been in practice for thousands of years by farmers all over the world. But only in recent years, it has been developed as a science to help farmers increase the productivity, profitability and sustainability of production on their land by combining the best attributes of forestry and agriculture.
Today, agroforestry has established itself as a viable approach of integrated land management system not only for meeting the deficits of food, fodder, firewood and timber but also for ecological considerations like soil conservation, biodiversity preservation, watershed protection, wasteland management, carbon sequestration and mitigation of climate change effects.
In this backdrop, agroforestry has been recommended as a core subject in the curriculum of the state agricultural universities. Keeping this in view, an effort has been made to write a textbook on agroforestry which would be useful to the students as well as the teachers. The common people, who love trees, would also find it worth reading.
This book is primarily based on the syllabus of my course ‘Introduction to Agroforestry’ taught to under-graduate forestry students. This book has been divided into sixteen chapters covering all aspects of agroforestry including concepts, definition, history, benefits and limitations, systems classifications, soil productivity, tree-crop interaction, multipurpose trees and their propagation, agroforestry management, watershed and wasteland management through agroforestry, climate change adaptation and mitigation, agroforestry diagnosis and design, experimental analysis, economics and extension of agroforestry. Any suggestion to improve the contents of the book will be highly appreciated. I take full responsibility for any errors in this book. Any shortcomings may be intimated so that it will be taken care of in the next edition.
In writing this book, the literature on agroforestry developed by various organizations and agencies like ICFRE, FAO, AFNETA, ICRISAT, ICAR, NRCAF, CAZRI, IGFRI, etc. is freely used. I extend my sincere thanks to the authors and editors of various books, journals and periodicals which have been used as reference material in this book. Every care has been taken to cite the bibliographic references. However, any omissions, misrepresentations, incorrect citations or other mistakes that may have occurred are regretted.
The preparation of this book was not supported by any research grant, fellowship or other form of financial support.
I am indebted to my friend Dr Ranjan Kumar Patra, Associate Professor (Soil Science), OUAT who has meticulously edited every word of the manuscript. I am also grateful to my colleagues in the AICRP on Agroforestry, AICRP on Integrated Farming System, College of Forestry, and College of Agriculture, OUAT, Bhubaneswar for their help in various ways during the preparation of this textbook.
I express my gratitude to the New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi for bringing out the book timely and nicely.
I am thankful to my wife Jharashree and daughter Prachurya for their constant support and encouragement.
This book is dedicated to my parents who are a constant source of inspiration to me throughout my academic journey.
Preface
Agroforestry, as an age-old land use system has been in practice for thousands of years by farmers all over the world. But only in recent years, it has been developed as a science to help farmers increase the productivity, profitability and sustainability of production on their land by combining the best attributes of forestry and agriculture.
Today, agroforestry has established itself as a viable approach of integrated land management system not only for meeting the deficits of food, fodder, firewood and timber but also for ecological considerations like soil conservation, biodiversity preservation, watershed protection, wasteland management, carbon sequestration and mitigation of climate change effects.
In this backdrop, agroforestry has been recommended as a core subject in the curriculum of the state agricultural universities. Keeping this in view, an effort has been made to write a textbook on agroforestry which would be useful to the students as well as the teachers. The common people, who love trees, would also find it worth reading.
This book is primarily based on the syllabus of my course ‘Introduction to Agroforestry’ taught to under-graduate forestry students. This book has been divided into sixteen chapters covering all aspects of agroforestry including concepts, definition, history, benefits and limitations, systems classifications, soil productivity, tree-crop interaction, multipurpose trees and their propagation, agroforestry management, watershed and wasteland management through agroforestry, climate change adaptation and mitigation, agroforestry diagnosis and design, experimental analysis, economics and extension of agroforestry. Any suggestion to improve the contents of the book will be highly appreciated. I take full responsibility for any errors in this book. Any shortcomings may be intimated so that it will be taken care of in the next edition.
In writing this book, the literature on agroforestry developed by various organizations and agencies like ICFRE, FAO, AFNETA, ICRISAT, ICAR, NRCAF, CAZRI, IGFRI, etc. is freely used. I extend my sincere thanks to the authors and editors of various books, journals and periodicals which have been used as reference material in this book. Every care has been taken to cite the bibliographic references. However, any omissions, misrepresentations, incorrect citations or other mistakes that may have occurred are regretted.
The preparation of this book was not supported by any research grant, fellowship or other form of financial support.
I am indebted to my friend Dr Ranjan Kumar Patra, Associate Professor (Soil Science), OUAT who has meticulously edited every word of the manuscript. I am also grateful to my colleagues in the AICRP on Agroforestry, AICRP on Integrated Farming System, College of Forestry, and College of Agriculture, OUAT, Bhubaneswar for their help in various ways during the preparation of this textbook.
I express my gratitude to the New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi for bringing out the book timely and nicely.
I am thankful to my wife Jharashree and daughter Prachurya for their constant support and encouragement.
This book is dedicated to my parents who are a constant source of inspiration to me throughout my academic journey.