Malta-based agroforestry system: an emerging option for improving productivity, profitability and land use efficiency
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Malta‑based agroforestry system: an emerging option for improving productivity, profitability and land use efficiency Ashim Kumar Das1 · Md. Abiar Rahman1,2 · Sanjida Sultana Keya1 · Satya Ranjan Saha1 · Md. Mezanur Rahman1 Received: 20 May 2020 / Revised: 2 October 2020 / Accepted: 15 October 2020 © Society for Environmental Sustainability 2020
Abstract The fruit tree-based agroforestry system (FAFS) is an important component of Bangladesh’s highland cropping systems that provides multiple benefits, including offering solutions to declining agricultural land and countering the effects of climate change. The present research involved the transformation of an early stage of malta (Citrus sinensis) orchard into AFS, where the performance of winter vegetables (broccoli and pea) and year-round spices (ginger and turmeric) were investigated in a distant-dependent manner, and afterward compared with the corresponding crops grown in open-field condition (control). The results demonstrate that the growth and yield-related attributes of vegetables and spices were less impeded in AFS as contrasted with the performances of corresponding open-field crops. These findings strongly suggest that the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), which is indispensable for crop growth, was less interfered in FAFS by the less dense canopy of young malta trees. Nonetheless, spices and crops that were grown closer to the base of the malta tree and either from ginger or turmeric raised bed, respectively, often produce less yield, which could be attributable to the competition of below-ground resources between trees and crops. Among different combinations of agroforestry systems, the highest benefit–cost ratio (2.92) was noted in the malta-broccoli-turmeric combination, while the highest land equivalent ratio was reported in the malta-broccoli-ginger amalgamation (2.01), which coincided with judicious use of supplied inputs (fertilizers, irrigation) as well as augmented soil fertility. Concisely, the current study concluded that AFS focused on malta, spices and vegetables, could be an excellent alternative to the highland cropping system in Bangladesh to ensure higher economic returns, optimize land use and soil fertility, and promote food and nutrition security. Keywords Benefit–cost ratio (BCR) · Fruit tree-based agroforestry · Land equivalent ratio (LER) · Spices · Winter vegetables
Introduction Bangladesh is trapped between the melting ice caps of the Himalayas, the increasingly vicious rainstorms from the north, and the rising tides of the Bay of Bengal to the south, making the country highly vulnerable to cataclysmic occasions caused by climate change (Abdullah and Rahman 2015; BBS 2018; Naser et al. 2019; Rahman et al. 2019). * Md. Abiar Rahman [email protected] 1
Department of Agroforestry and Environment, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur‑1706, Bangladesh
South Asia Program, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya
2
In addition, Bangladesh harbors ne
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