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Agroforestry plays an important role in sustainable food production and provision of ecosystem services and economic benefits. The present paper highlights the contribution of agroforestry in reclamation of wastelands in India by enhancing soil fertility, arresting soil erosion, enhancing biodiversity and sequestering atmospheric carbon, besides increasing aesthetics and providing economic benefits. Wastelands account for about 20.17% of the total geographical area in the country. Agroforestry systems can be classified into i) agri-silviculture ii) silvipasture, and iii) agri-silvi-pasture. These agroforestry systems hold enormous potential to contribute to land rehabilitation and increased production of a wide range of products, such as food, fuel, fodder & forage, fibre, timber, gums & resins, medicinal products, etc on degraded lands. Agroforestry certainly has an edge over sole agriculture in terms of maintenance of more favourable soil physical properties, more efficient use of soil nutrients, reduced incidence of insects & pests, reduced soil run off and reduced need for toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Agroforestry systems also have a higher potential to sequester carbon, not only in the above ground and below ground plant parts but also in soil. In humid tropics, agroforestry systems can sequester 70Mg C ha-1in vegetation and upto 25Mg C ha-1in the top 20 cm layer of soil. Well managed agroforestry practices can also mitigate N2O and CO2 emissions from soil much more efficiently as compared to high input cropping system while maintaining a strong CH4 sink. Selection of appropriate species in an agroforestry system is very important and it should be site specific for different types of degraded lands, such as ravine lands, desert lands & sand dunes; saline, alkaline & acid soils, water logged areas, lands affected by shifting cultivation, cho and river beds, shallow & rocky soils, sandy soils, etc as an inappropriate combination may result in negative interaction also between the tree and agricultural crop components due to resource competition leading to reduced productivity, increased pest & disease incidence and allelopathic effects. Species suitable for different types of the above-mentioned sites have also been suggested.
Agroforestry, eco-system services, wasteland reclamation, carbon sequestration, land reclamation.
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