An Insight into Prevalent Agroforestry Land Use Systems of North Western Himalayan Region, India: Challenges and Future Prospects

The north-western Himalayan region of India is comprised of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, covering about 10% geographical area of the country. The region is ecologically as well as biologically rich in diversity and source of livelihood to large no. of people constituting 89.90%, 69.40%, 72.62% and 61.33% of rural people in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, J&K and Ladakh, respectively. India has just 2% of the world land resources yet it supports about 18% of the human population and 12% of the livestock population throughout world. Exploitive resource use due to fast growing human and livestock population coupled with natural and anthropogenic disturbances cause degradation of the land and bio-resources thereby affecting the fragile ecosystem. Changing climatic conditions and the increasing land-use conflicts call for the development of such sustainable land use systems that reconcile the production from the agriculture along with the provision of multiple ecosystem services, including climate change mitigation. Estimates suggest that about 30% of the emission reductions and carbon sequestration can be contributed by the sustainable land use interventions to meet the target set by Paris agreement. Agroforestry is practiced traditionally in north-western Himalayan region as is evident from the various multipurpose tree species deliberately retained by farmers on their farmland. The various traditional land uses are the outcome of the topographical features, socio-economic conditions, cultural and aesthetic values in the region. Besides providing multiple benefits, such as food, fodder, fuelwood, fibre etc., agroforestry systems act as a cushion against the several ecological hazards associated with the developmental activities and helps in conservation of resources in a sustainable manner. Various traditional agroforestry practices reported in the north-western Himalayan region are agrisilviculture, agrihorticulture, agrisilvihorticulture, agrihortisilviculture, hortisilviculture, silvopastoral, pastoralsilviculture, agrisilvopastoral, pastoralsilvihorticulture etc. varying in structural and functional composition as per the needs and preferences of the farmers well adapted to the ecological conditions. This article is an overview of the various agroforestry practices prevalent, their compositional variation, bio-economic productivity and carbon stock potential in north-western Indian Himalayan region.