Productivity assessment of agricultural crops in existing agrihortisilvicultural system of mid hills of Central Western Himalaya, India

The paper summarizes the productivity of various agricultural crops under existing agrihortisilviculture (AHS) system in northern and southern aspects of mid hills of Central Western Garhwal Himalaya (Narendra Nagar block of district Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand), India between 1000 to 2000 m asl during Rabi (winter) and Kharif (summer) seasons. The northern aspect was more diverse and formed good vegetation composition, both in terms of forest crops and in agricultural productivity. The tree diversity and richness was recorded to be higher in northern aspect. A total of 18 tree species were reported in the northern aspect and 13 in the southern aspect of AHS systems. The Grewia optiva was observed as dominant tree species and Citrus sinensis as co-dominant species in the northern and southern aspects. The northern aspect observed with higher grain productivity under tree (1326 kg/ha/year) and sole cropping (2471 kg/ha/year) compared to southern aspect; similarly, the northern aspect proved to be higher in straw productivity under trees (3587 kg/ha/year) and treeless (4510 kg/ha/year) situation for both Rabi (winter) and Kharif (summer) crops. Overall, there is an average reduction of 45.05% in gain yield and 29.53% in biological yield compared to sole agricultural cropping in northern aspect. The average reduction in the grain yield (29.08%) and biological yield (28.77%) was lower in the southern aspect. It was summarized that the reduction in the agricultural produce under agrihortisilviculture system is supplemented by multiferous benefits of woody perennials which is life supporting to the rural community of this hilly landscape.