Agroforestry: A Viable Livelihood Option for Rehabilitation of Flood Affected Communities of The River Indus Basin

Abstract

Historically tree planting is an age-old land use system as the human evolution process, so NWFPs’ crucial role in rural livelihood, rural development and natural resource conservation has been presently recognized. This study investigated the agroforestry practices of farming communities in the Layyah and Kotaddu Tehsils in Muzaffargargh and Layyah districts southern Punjab Province of Pakistan. Purpose of this research is three fold: to establish site-specific NWFPs– livelihood linkages and to investigate the potential and constrains of the river Indus Basin to improve and sustainability of livelihoods and higher income generation. This is a handful research on the utilization of agroforestry for livelihood and its role in rehabilitation of flash flood concern on people. How could agroforestry be better utilized to improve the livelihoods, maintain the natural system resilience of forest-adjacent communities and to achieve the goal of conserving forest resources? The hypothesis of the study was farmers were more inclined toward agroforestry. Adoption of tree planting practices of farming communities were investigated in this study. However, this research used both experimental as well as survey research. How species performed under flooded condition were assessed through an experiment designed under CRD having three replicates. In order to gain information on how communities fetch their livelihoods through agroforestry, a survey research was conducted on 160 farmers equally (80 AF and 80 NAF) divided to practicing agroforestry and those who were not. The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different irrigation sources and growth parameters of forest trees Shisham, Neem, Siri and Sufeda. The effect of different irrigation levels exhibited the highest plant height in Sufeda under flooding which were 135 and 125cm after and before the experiment. However, Neem showed maximum plant height after experiment (103 cm) under drought condition. But, the minimum plant height (57 cm) before experiment was observed in Sufeda under drought exhibiting 50% decline than Sufeda under flooding. Contrary to that Neem exhibited the maximum plant height before experiment (i.e 107 cm) under drought. The highest chlorophyll contents (73.51%) after experiment was observed in Sufeda under flooding and the lowest chlorophyll contents (7.32) after experiment was observed in Neem under flooding. Opposite to that Neem showed maximum chlorophyll contents (55.23%) under drought. Similarly, the maximum root dry weight (25.21 g) at the end of the after experiment in Sufeda under flooding observed. The highest dry shoot weight (27.63 g) was recorded in Sufeda under flooding. Whereas, the lowest dry shoot weight (4.25 g) was recorded in Sufeda under drought. Maximum root fresh weight (42.35 g) was recorded in Sufeda under flooding. Whereas, the minimum root fresh weight (5.52 g) was recorded in Sufeda under drought. In the same way the fresh shoot weight (51.23 g) was found in Sufeda where flooding was applied. While, in Neem the highest fresh shoot weight (42.75 g) was recorded under drought environment. It was hypothesized that rural people of these areas are more inclined than elsewhere in the province to practice agroforestry due to greater profitability than cropping. In place of agricultural crops which have low economic return, a comparison is made with A landholder survey was conducted to compare agroforestry and crop income. It was found that the majority of farmers were inclined to plant trees on their land. Low accessibility of institutional credit was a constraint for both AF (agroforestry farmers) and NAF (non-agroforestry farmers). However, among AF respondents only 24% were found to need credit for agroforestry practice, as against nearly 76% for crop production. Mostly farmers were found to have positive perceptions regarding agroforestry practice, because they understand the multiple benefits from growing trees, compared with cropping where they face various constraints, including poor access to credit, natural hazards, and meager support from local authorities. Further, this effort can generate farmer’s willingness through change in farmers’ perceptions and attitudes in the Indus River basin, resulting in motivation for agroforestry adoption. The hypothesis was “Homestead agroforestry system has tremendous potential to enhance the economy and livelihood of the area under study”. Results represent an average farm size, of households were 11.80 ha. The subsistence and economic landholding has a sizes of 5.06 ha and 11.80 ha, respectively. The prices of proceeds produced over the year in homestead forestry of study area were US$330.8. The results showed that 0.25 m3 timber was collected annually per farm out of which 0.07 m3 was consumed and the rest was sold. Average revenue generated by selling homestead timber was US $44.0. Revenue produced in subsistence, economic, and above economic farms were US$20.5, US$80.5, and US$95, respectively. Agroforestry has positive correlation on the farm income. The comparison of AF versus NAF revealed high farm income to the AF farmers than NAF. The AF farmers with low income (100000) were about 7 (9%) but in NAF they were18 (22%). Similarly, the AF farmers with medium income (100000 – 200000) were 29 (36%) while in NAF it was 34 (42%). Also the farmers with high farm income were high in case of AF which is 44 (55%) than NAF where it is 38 (47%) indicating strong financial earning to the AF farmers than NAF farmers. This study is provide an idea and aims to explore the potential of agroforestry in the southern part of Punjab Province, Pakistan with intention to provide a landmark for future comparison of agroforestry and non-agroforestry adoption in field area and similar other areas having same conditions. The outcome provide support /guidance for government, policy designer, local authorities, progressive farmers, NGOs, researchers and farmers in number of ways for prudently adoption of agroforestry.