Soil Moisture Status in Eucalypts based Agroforestry System in Semi-Arid Region of Haryana

Author: Stanley Kombra*, K.S. Ahlawat, Chhavi Sirohi, P. Poonia, Charan Singh, Sneh Yadav and Pankaj Singroha

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Abstract

Agroforestry systems have substantially altered soil properties in both surface and sub-surface layers. Information on the effect of Eucalypts based agroforestry on the status of soil moisture content is minimal. The present study investigated changes in soil moisture stauts under eucalypts (Eucalyptus tereticornis) based agroforestry and monocropped systems (sole barley and mustard) in semi-arid region of Haryana. During this study, we quantified the stauts of soil moisture content at different distances from tree line (1.5m, 2.5m and 3.5m). The maximum moisture content (20.3 %) was observed at 30-45 cm soil depth at 3.5 m away from tree line after 7 days of 1st irrigation. Whereas, mustard and barley intercropped with eucalypts exhibited minimum moisture content (5.2 %) at 0-15 cm soil depth at 1.5 m distance from tree line before 2nd irrigation.

Keywords

Agroforestry, soil moisture, tree line distance, soil depth, irrigation

Conclusion

The present investigation concludes that mustard intercropped with eucalypts based agroforestry system exhibited maximum percent reduction (51.9 %) at 0-15 cm depth at1.5 m distance from tree line, before 2nd irrigation. However, distance 3.5 m from eucalypts tree line and soil depth 30-45 cm exhibited minimum per cent reduction (9.4 %) after 7 days of 1st irrigation when barley grown in the interspaces of eucalypts plantation and control. During this study, the moisture content was lower under eucalypts based agroforestry system due to more competition between crop and tree for moisture.

References

INTRODUCTION Agroforestry is an integrated land-use system approach (Aryal et al., 2019), different from the sum of its two major components, viz., agriculture and forestry (Nair et al., 2021). The specific advantages of this system can be environmental, social and economic (Wato and Amara, 2020). Due to overexploitation, unscientific collection, and illegal export, the genetic resources of valuable crops are getting exhausted very fast. The crops are being cultivated along with the trees under agroforestry systems to overcome this situation (Elevitch et al., 2018). Growing trees on agricultural fields, combined with agricultural crops to augment biomass production per unit area, is becoming popular among farmers (Zahoor et al., 2021). Agroforestry occupies 25.32 million hectares (mha) or 8.2% of the total geographical area in India (Dhyani et al., 2013) and its area is expected to increase after the implementation and adoption of National Agroforestry Policy, 2014. These systems emer

How to cite this article

Stanley Kombra, K.S. Ahlawat, Chhavi Sirohi, P. Poonia, Charan Singh, Sneh Yadav and Pankaj Singroha (2022). Soil Moisture Status in Eucalypts Based Agroforestry System in Semi-Arid Region of Haryana. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(1):