Agroforestry techniques for the rehabilitation of degraded salt‐affected lands in India

Abstract

AbstractThe development of appropriate technologies for the judicious use of India's 8.11 million ha of salt‐affected lands would give increased food, fodder and fuelwood production. A sizeable portion of the salt‐affected lands of the Indo‐Gangetic plain have been reclaimed through chemical amendments and are being commercially used for arable farming. However, large areas of salt‐affected common lands, village and government lands and waste lands near cities, along railway tracks and roads do not have any productive use. Owing to their sparse vegetative cover such lands are vulnerable to further degradation and can be a source of runoff causing floods, especially where cows congregate. Research at the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal has generated agroforestry techniques which could enable the economic exploitation of such marginal lands. This paper deals with various aspects of these techniques, which have been applied to over 50 000 ha by 1994.Based on eight to ten years of growth and biomass figures, the most salt‐tolerant woody species identified were: Prosopis juliflora, Acacia nilotica, Casuarina equisetifolia, Tamarix articulata, Leptochloa fusca (a palatable forage grass which was found to be a promising primary colonizer of salt lands). Agronomic practices for the successful establishment of trees such as planting methods, amendment use, irrigation, spacing and lopping schedules are discussed. A Prosopis juliflora‐leptochloa fusca silvipastoral model was found to be excellent for fuelwood and forage production and for the amelioration of high pH soils. This system, when followed for little more than four years, reclaims alkali soils to such an extent that normal agriculture crops such as Trifolium alexandrinum and T. resupinatum can be grown successfully. A ridge‐trench system of tree planting was found to be helpful in alkali soils, the in situ rainwater conservation it led to assisting biomass production. Eucalyptus tereticornis, Populus deltoides and Tectona grandis based agroforestry were promising for reclaimed salt‐affected lands. The short‐ and long‐term effects of various tree plantations on the physicochemical properties of the soil and on soil‐water relations are also discussed. Agroforestry options for the development of salt‐affected lands found in various agroclimatic zones of India are explored.