Agroforestry Systems as Alternate Land Use Options to Tobacco in Rainfed Areas

Agroforestry systems, viz, agrisiliviculture and silvipasture were developed as alternate land use options to overcome declining demand and price fluctuations of FCV tobacco, largely grown in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. The results indicated that silvi component namely eucalyptus, leucaena and casuarina are compatible with annuals during initial years of tree growth. The yields of black gram, kalmegh, tobacco and guinea grass did not vary significantly with tree species in the first year. In second and third years, the yields of intercrops except guinea grass and kalmegh declined drastically. The yield of tobacco declined to 29, 33 and 54 percent of sole crop with eucalyptus, leucaena and casuarina, respectively in the third year, indicating higher impact of eucalyptus. Similarly the yield of blackgram declined to 33, 33 and 52 percent of sole crop with eucalyptus, leucaena and casuarina, respectively in the third year. Kalmegh and guinea grass yielded up to 85 percent of sole crop in association with trees even in third year. The results suggest that annual crops can be grown up to two years with perennials without any adverse impact on yield. In terms of soil and rainwater conservation, agroforestry system was found to be superior to sole tobacco but poorer than pasture system. The cumulative rainfall for selected five runoff yielding rainfall events was 471 mm. The values of runoff and soil loss for pasture system were 108 mm and 2193 kg ha⁻¹ compared to 144 mm and 3015 kg ha⁻¹ for agroforestry system, respectively. Sole crop of tobacco recorded the highest amount of runoff 241 mm and soil loss 8072 kg ha⁻¹ indicating high susceptibility to natural resource losses.