System units and constraints of existing agroforestry systems in North - Western Himalayas

Abstract

The study was carried out to identify the existing Agroforestry systems as well as system units and technological constraints present there in Agroforestry systems in North–Western Himalayas. The study area was divided into 5 altitudinal zones. In each altitudinal zone farmers were selected based on their land holding size and further grouped into 3 farmer’s category viz., marginal, small and medium. The agroforestry systems identified among 3 farmer’s categories in all the altitudinal zones were Agri-Silviculture (AS), Agri-Horticulture (AH), Horti-Agriculture (HA), Horti-Pastoral (HP), Pastoral-Silviculture (PS), Pastoral-Horti-Silviculture (PHS) and Silvi-Pastoral (SP).The most pre-dominant Agroforestry systems were Agri-Horticulture (AH), Horti-Agriculture (HA), Horti-Pastoral (HP) and Agri-Silviculture (AS). The study revealed that horticulture based agroforestry systems seem to a play vital role in socio-economic upliftment of farming communities in the study area. It is also evident from the study that lack of awareness regarding government sponsored schemes is a major constraint in the study area which needs to be solved with the best possible solutions.