Species Diversity of Agroforestry Systems in Patur Tehsil of Akola District in Maharashtra

The present study was undertaken to assess composition and species diversity of different agroforestry practices followed by the farmers in Akola district during 2013–15. The list of 100 respondents from 10 villages of Patur tehsil were selected randomly where 10 farmers from each village were selected for the study. Exploratory design of social research, has been used. Vegetation analysis was done through quadrate sampling methods with 0.1% sample. Results revealed that the farmers are practicing eleven different agroforestry systems in their field namely: bund plantation, boundary planting, agrisilviculture, hortisilviculture, agrisilvipastoral, agrihortisilviculture, plantation along irrigation canal, kitchen garden, plantation near water sources, block plantation and scattered plantation. The result on vegetation analysis of agroforestry systems shows that total 13 Important Value Index values were listed for the trees. The rvi values ranged from 105.65 to 8.28. The lowest value was recorded for the Acacia arabica (19.84) while the highest value of rvi was recorded for the Tectona grandis (105.65), followed by Azadirachta indica (35.73) Zizyphus mauritiana (28.09) and Mangifera indica (22.64).Tectona grandis was the most frequently occurred tree species under rainfed situations (99%) The other important tree species grown in agro forestry under rainfed situations included Acacia arabica, Acacia catechu, Butea monosperma, Dalbergia sisoo, Terminalia bellirica, Agle marmelos and Semcarpus anacardium. Distribution pattern of species of given area recorded maximum 8.80 in Dalbergia sisoo and minimum 0.12 in Tectona grandis.