Performance of multistoried agroforestry system in charland ecosystem

Multistoried agroforestry practice with different crop combinations were implemented in the South char Kalibari along the bank of Brahmaputra river adjacent to the Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, during the period from March, 2018 to December, 2019. In this study, ten years old lombu (Khaya anthotheca) tree was used as silvicultural component at the upper layer, ginger, panchamukhi kachu and turmeric as root crops were cultivated at the ground layer, papaya plant was in between the lombu trees at the second layer, Chui jhal (Piper chaba) as vine crop on the lombu tree at the third layer. Following the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications root crops were planted at three different distances from lombu tree base viz. T1 = 2.5 ft., T2 = 5.0 ft, T3 = 7.5 ft. and with a control treatment (T0 = without tree). Performance of all studied root crops was significantly affected in this multistoried agroforestry system where mean yield reduction of ginger, panchamukhi kachu and turmeric were 42.49, 49.26 and 40.77%, respectively. Area wise yield of lombu tree, papaya and Chui jhal was reduced remarkably due to use of wider spacing during lombu tree plantation but yield of individual plant of each not significantly affected. Area wise (ha-1) yield reduction of lombu tree, papaya and Chui jhal were near 50, 70 and 60%, respectively. Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) values of ginger-papaya-Chui jhal-lombu, panchamukhi kachupapaya-Chui jhal-lombu, turmeric-papaya-Chui jhal-lombu combinations were 1.75, 1.65 and 1.75 which indicates 65-75% yield advantage i.e. under monocultures, 65-75% more land would be needed to match yields from this intercropping. Based on the LER analysis all of these crop combinations or intercropping as multistoried agroforestry system of this study would be productive agroforestry models for charland areas of Bangladesh.

Keywords: Multistorey, agroforestry, Khaya anthotheca tree, charland.