Impact of Agroforestry practices on livelihood improvement of the farmers of Lohardaga District Jharkhand

A study was conducted for a period of one year from July to June, 2014-15 to evaluate agroforestry practices and its impact on farmer’s livelihood improvement in Bhandra block of Lohardaga district Jharkhand. A questionnaire was prepared to know the independent and dependent variables. The independent variables were age, education, family member, farm size, agroforestry land size, cultivable land, fallow land, monthly income, knowledge about trees, and knowledge of agroforestry; while the dependent variable of the study was existing agroforestry practices. Average age of farmers was 39.27 years and it ranged from 25 to 65 years. Education level of farmers ranged from 0 -15 with an average was 9.51. Family size of the respondents in Bhandra ranged from 3-12 with an average of 6.95. The farm size of the farmers ranged from 0.6 – 8.0 ha. Agriculture land size of the respondents ranged from 0.6 – 4.5 ha with an average of 1.66 ha. Agroforestry land size of the respondents ranged from 0.2 – 1.2 with an average of 0.55 ha. The fallow land size of the farmers ranged from 0 – 0.8 ha with an average of 0.28 ha. Monthly income of the farmers was ranged from Rs. 2500 to 9500 with an average of Rs. 5570.73. In Ghamhar based agrisilviculrure system found B: C ratio 2.96 and average annual net returns were to the tune of Rs.28,875/- at current prices where as in mango based agrihorticulture system found B:C ratio 2.00 and average annual net returns were to the tune of Rs.23,050/- at current prices. In Shisham based silvipastoral system B:C ratio 2.44 and average annual net returns were to the tune of Rs.6,655/- at current prices. Whereas Teak based homegarden system B:C ratio 3.04 and average annual net returns were to the tune of Rs.27,520/- at current prices.