Potentials of Poplar and Eucalyptus in Indian Agroforestry for Revolutionary Enhancement of Farm Productivity

Abstract

Natural forest cover of India is declining, and timber imports are draining foreign exchange since the productivity aspects of forests have been assigned low priority in Indian policies. To overcome this problem, the forest trees should largely be planted on wastelands, which will help in sustainable timber and forest goods production. If the forest trees are used continuously and no replacement is done, forest trees will depart considerably by 2050, which will cause damage to the environment and biodiversity. Farm forestry/agroforestry offers the only tested technique to sustain the forest goods production and safeguard the integrity of natural forests. Quick-growing exotic species are of special significance when they are raised on agricultural holdings, mainly because they are capable to generate per unit more income than traditional agricultural crops. With this object, regular attempts have been made to successfully integrate the exotic tree species under various farm/agroforestry systems to increase productivity, thereby reducing the widening gap between demand and supply of forest products. Eucalyptus and Populus have played the revolutionary impact as agroforestry trees on farmers’ fields, particularly in Indo-Gangetic Plains.