POPLAR AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS OF WESTERN UTTAR PRADESH IN NORTHERN INDIA: A SOCIOECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Poplar based agroforestry is one of the major commercial agroforestry systems practised by the farmers in Western Uttar Pradesh of India. In Saharanpur district which is near the markets for poplar wood, about 78 per cent of the sample farmers practise poplar-based bund/boundary systems while the rest use agrisilviculture. The tree density in poplar-based (Populus deltoides) bund/boundary system was 146 trees ha−1, as against 481 trees ha−1 in agrisilviculture. Additional incomc (<70%) and an emergency source of cash (nearly 20%) were the farmers' major reasons for adopting agroforestry. The financial and economic analyses indicated that net present value (NPV) in case of bund system with an eight years rotation were Rs.137,000/-, Rs.127,000/- and Rs.l18,000/- at discount factors of 8, 10 and 12 percent, respectively, with a Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) of 2.8 for all the three discount factors. In the case of agrisilviculture with a rotation of seven years, the NPV at the respective discount factors were Rs. 123,000/-, Rs.111,000/- and Rs. 101,000/-, respectively, while the BCRs were 2.18, 2.15 and 2.12—compared to the conventional crop rotations with a BCR of 1.34 to 1.42 Both poplar-based agroforestry systems were more profitable than pure agricultural crop systems. Additional employment generation due to agrisilviculture was just under 11 mandays ha−1 yr−1.