International Journal of Agriculture, Environment and Biotechnology

Agroforestry is the management and integration of trees, crops and/or livestock on the same plot of land and can be an integral component of productive agriculture for higher economic returns. With the ever increasing population during past decades, the land resources for cultivation are shrinking. This situation calls for the adoption of ‘Agroforestry systems’ which is not only an efficient land management but also has promising role in maintaining environmental balance. In India, farmers’ are lacking in information on choosing the combination or compatibility of agricultural crops and tree species for different agroforestry systems under various agro-ecological zones. The benefits of successful agroforestry systems have an economic, environmental and social dimension. It is important to bring out a technology package on successful and viable agroforestry systems suitable for different agro-ecological zones for socioeconomic upliftment of rural farming community. The fast growing, multipurpose and indigenous trees, which could combine very well with annual crops and provide maximum economic returns in the short period of time is preferred under agroforestry systems. Neolamarkia cadamba is one such tree having fast growth in nature and highly suitable for agroforestry systems for higher economic returns. N. cadamba is a species having various end uses for pulp, ply and most preferred for pencil making. Though many phyto-chemicals and pharmacological compounds have been identified from this tree species, the species has not been domesticated so far under agroforestry systems. A detailed review on the status of this species including nursery techniques, agroforestry system establishment, etc. is presented in this paper.