Agrosilvopastoral systems for improved crop and fodder productivity and soil health in the rainfed environments of South India

CONTEXT: Livestock and crop productions are always intrinsically linked in risk prone rainfed farming. Agrosilvopastoral systems ensures supplementarity of resources, feed availability for goat and sheep, and food grain for farmers. Agrosilvopastoral system approach is an attempt to tackle fodder shortages in winter (Decem-ber-February) and summer (March-June), which can meet the small ruminants' requirements in addition to food grains for human consumption in rainfed areas. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to evaluate and identify an agrosilvopastoral system suited to rainfed environments to ensure high crop and fodder productivity and improved soil health. METHODS: A field experiment on agrosilvopastoral system was conducted during 2019-2022 at Hayathnagar research farm of ICAR-CRIDA (17 degrees 19 ' 59.0"N Lat. and 78 degrees 35'25.3"E Long.) in different combinations of fodder trees with finger millet and legume fodder, and finger millet and legume fodder (stylos) each as check. The fodder trees were: Ailanthus excelsa, Azadirachta indica, Dalbergia latifolia, Madhuca longifolia, Hardiwickia binata, Butea monosperma, Syzygium cumini, Aegel marmelos and Bauhinia variegata. Finger millet and stylos were sown as inter-row and intra-row components of fodder trees. Impacts of these systems on crop, tree and livestock productivity from harvested fodders, and soil health were studied. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The Hardiwickia binata + finger millet + stylos and Dalbergia latifolia + finger millet + stylos based agrosilvopastoral systems produced 1.32 and 1.28 t ha-1 of finger millet yield respectively, and 7.64 and 7.95 t ha-1 green fodder respectively, from fodder trees, finger millet straw and stylos together. There were increases in soil N (36 and 33%), P (65 and 63%), and organic carbon (36 and 35%), and decrease in bulk density (6%) respectively, over initial status under the Hardiwickia binata + finger millet + stylos and Dalbergia latifolia + finger millet + stylos based systems. Hardiwickia binata based system accumulated highest above ground biomass of 17.5 t ha-. 1 These agrosilvopastoral systems ensured improved fodder availability from crop, legume and trees for small ruminants, improved soil health from fodder legume in wet season, grain availability for farmers from finger millet, and the fodder leaves from trees in the late dry season. SIGNIFICANCE: Our study demonstrated that the Dalbergia latifolia + finger millet + stylos and Hardiwickia binata + finger millet + stylos based agrosilvopastoral systems is a feasible option to meet the fodder requirement of small ruminants, improve soil health, lessen vulnerability to crop failure, and improve livelihood security of rainfed farmers in South India.