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Verma T, Bhardwaj DR, Sharma U, Sharma P, Kumar D, Kumar A, Kumar A. Agroforestry systems in the mid-hills of the north-western Himalaya: A sustainable pathway to improved soil health and climate resilience. J Environ Manage 2023; 348:119264. [PMID: 37839207 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Revised: 09/27/2023] [Accepted: 10/02/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023]
Abstract
Identifying the new tree crop combinations plays an important function in transforming the low input agriculture into land units with high economic returns, increasing carbon (C) sink and nutrients storage capacity, and acting as a panacea to achieve Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). The present study aims to evaluate various tree-crop combinations for (i) biomass production, (ii) carbon accumulation, and (iii) soil nutrient enrichment of traditional and commercially evolved eight agroforestry systems (AFSs), including agri-silvi-horticulture system, agri-silviculture system, silvi-pasture, fruit tree, fodder tree, bamboo, melia and poplar based AFSs with sole cropping system in the mid-hill zone of the north-western Himalaya. The results demonstrated that poplar based AFS accumulated a higher amount of biomass (130.87 Mg ha-1) and carbon (65.44 Mg ha-1) closely followed by melia-based AFS. The C stored in leaf litter was higher (0.66 Mg ha-1) in poplar-based AFS, however, soil C stock was maximum (114.69 Mg ha-1) under bamboo-based AFS. Overall, the Melia based AFS exhibited a higher rate of carbon dioxide mitigation (19.30 Mg ha-1 yr-1) and C-sequestration (5.26 Mg ha-1 yr-1) than other studied AFSs. Moreover, soil macro-nutrients (available N, P, K, S and Ca) were maximum under bamboo-based AFS, on the other hand, the fruit-based AFS had the higher concentrations of micro-nutrients i.e., Cu (3.05), Fe (31.10 mg g-1) and Mn (17.31 mg g-1). The soil microbial counts were higher in poplar-based AFS, whereas, the soil quality index improved significantly under bamboo based and fruit tree based AFSs. Hence, it can be concluded that the experimentally evolved AFSs represent an effective approach for boosting C-sequestration, soil fertility, regenerating the soil and sustainability of hill agriculture in the north-western Himalayas over traditional AFSs and sole cropping.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tarun Verma
- Department of Silviculture and Agroforestry, Dr Y S Parmar Univ. of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, 173230, India
| | - D R Bhardwaj
- Department of Silviculture and Agroforestry, Dr Y S Parmar Univ. of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, 173230, India.
| | - Uday Sharma
- Department of Soil Science and Water Management, Dr Y S Parmar Univ. of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, 173230, India
| | - Prashant Sharma
- Department of Silviculture and Agroforestry, Dr Y S Parmar Univ. of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, 173230, India.
| | - Dhirender Kumar
- Department of Silviculture and Agroforestry, Dr Y S Parmar Univ. of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, 173230, India
| | - Amit Kumar
- Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, 248 006, India
| | - Amit Kumar
- School of Hydrology and Water Resources, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China.
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Paschapur A, Subbanna ARNS, Gupta J, Parihar M, Mishra KK. Insect pest scenario in Uttarakhand Himalayas, India, under changing climatic conditions. Int J Biometeorol 2022; 66:1445-1460. [PMID: 35445862 DOI: 10.1007/s00484-022-02289-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2021] [Revised: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 04/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The Himalayan mountains are early indicators of climate change, wherein slight changes in climate can lead to a drastic variation in faunal diversity, distribution, invasion of fauna into higher altitudes, rapid population growth, shortening of life cycle and increased number of overwintering species. The insects best represent the faunal diversity. In recent years, due to variation in pattern of rainfall and temperature regimes, several insect pests have moved northwards and are posing great threat to hill agriculture. Few among them are greenhouse whiteflies, thrips and mites in protected cultivation system; blister beetles on flowers of cereals, pulses and oilseeds; invasive insect pests like fall armyworm of maize and tomato pin worm and sporadic pests like grasshoppers that are reaching a status of major key pest in various crops. Keeping in mind the phenomenon of climate change and associated changes in pest population, the present article focuses on emerging insect pest problems in cereals, millets, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables of Indian Himalayas, along with their changing population density with respect to different climatic parameters, the per cent increase in the pest damage over the years and their potential of gaining the status of major pests in near future and causing huge economic losses to hill agriculture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amit Paschapur
- Crop Protection Division, ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora, 263601, Uttarakhand, India.
| | - A R N S Subbanna
- Crop Protection Division, ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora, 263601, Uttarakhand, India
| | - Jaiprakash Gupta
- Crop Protection Division, ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora, 263601, Uttarakhand, India
| | - Manoj Parihar
- Crop Protection Division, ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora, 263601, Uttarakhand, India
| | - Krishna Kant Mishra
- Crop Protection Division, ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora, 263601, Uttarakhand, India
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