Agroforestry Systems and Its Impact on Tribal Livelihoods: A Case study of Sungra Village of District Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh

Agroforestry is the general term for land use techniques, technologies, or systems in which woody perennials are integrated with agricultural crops or animals in the same system of land management through spatial or temporal arrangements. Agroforestry has its roots in the concept of Agri-silviculture. A sustainable and diverse strategy to land usage, agroforestry systems include trees, crops, and livestock on the same plot of land. The study tries to encompass both primary and secondary sources of the data. The analysis comprises of the use of the simple random sampling technique for the selection the households. Therefore, the present study tries to analyse the impact of agroforestry on the tribal people’s livelihoods. The collected data has been tabulated, processed, analysed and interpreted by applying suitable statistical techniques. The present study has applied sustainable livelihood framework (SLF) (Department for International Development (DFID) 1999). In which improvement in different livelihood capitals/assets such as natural, human, physical, social and financial have been analysed. In the present investigation of agroforestry systems, the farmers of the present study area have mainly practised Agro-horticulture. The major agriculture crops grown by the farmers are wheat, maize, rajmah ogla and fafra (buckwheat), potato and peas. As per the findings of the study the social and financial capitals have significantly improved in terms of information about farming and helps from the Government and Non-government organisations. Positive improvement has been witnessed in the study area due to agroforestry practices in the past few decades.