Role of Trees in Farm Bunds – A Case study in Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh, India

— Agroforestry systems are multifunctional systems that can provide a wide range of economic, sociocultural and environmental benefits. Agroforestry can be particularly important for smallholder farmers because it generates diverse products and services on a limited land area. The tree resource outside the forest (TOF) is a highly diverse and locally different natural renewable resource. In many regions they play a prominent role in securing rural livelihoods viz., provision of small timber, firewood, fodder, fruits, medicinal value, etc.The present study was conducted at Balaghat districct of Madhya Pradesh to study the types of tree species being maintained in farm bunds, potential benefits of trees, reason for maintaining trees in bunds, etc. The study reveled that, farmers’ are maintai ning around 25 different tree species for various outputs. Marginal farmers are maintaining trees mainly to meet out their daily needs and small and large farmers for future investment. In this paper, the reasons for opting bund planting, level of domestication and adoption and constraints facing by farmers are discussed in detail. Highlights:


INTRODUCTION
Agroforestry involves raising trees in combination with other agricultural enterprises. providing fodder, fuel, wood, and other products, trees in agroforestry systems promote soil and water conservation, enhance soil fertility and act as windbreaks for nearby crops. Agroforestry is known to have the potential to mitigate the climate change effects through microclimate moderation, conservation of natural resources and creation of additional source of livelihood and income opportunities. Agroforestry is evolved over a period of time and intricately related to human life from generations to generations. The maintenance of trees either on field boundary or near habitat is traditional practices to fulfill day-by-day needs to secure livelihood and this practice scientifically known as agroforestry from last four to five decades.In recent past, we have witnessed that tree species are receiving more and rapid attention in India to achieve the national goal of 33% green cover, mostly in the form of Trees Outside Forests (TOF) category. TOF have potential to increase social, economic and environmental stability and overall, net farm income (Saravanan, 2017).
As of now about 25 Mha area is under Agroforestry land use in India and supports almost half of the demand of fuelwood, two third of small timber, 70-80% wood for plywood industry, 60% raw material for paper pulp and 9- 11% of green fodder requirement of livestock. Although, current average biomass productivity in India is less than 2tha -1 yr -1 but it can be enhanced to 10tha -1 yr -1 through careful selection of compatible tree crop combination not only to bridge the gap in demand and supply but also to make country surplus in plywood, paper pulp and small timber.Deep tree roots also help prevent soil erosion. Agroforestry systems can also be used as carbon sinks within an environment, and to an extent, help counter the effects of continued deforestation on the carbon cycle.
In India, agroforestry is practiced in various ways like tree on field boundary, block plantation; alley cropping, scattered trees in field, home gardens and homestead gardens etc. Among these, bund plantation is very common practice through-out the country.In such conditions, mostly multipurpose tree species is likely to be chosen to plant on field bunds to achieve the benefits like fruits, fibre, fuel wood, fertilizer, food and medicine. In systematic agroforestry, the industrial hub for plywood and pulp has developed Eucalyptus and Poplar based agroforestry system on 8-9 lakh ha area in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. The income obtained from these system are two-three times higher than conventional cropping practice and this has forced farmer to spare fertile land for agroforestry. Poplar based Agroforestry is classical example of this system where in trees are grown alongside the crops/grasses to obtain diverse produce.Agroforestry not only provides environmental services, but also economic gains, as about 65% of the country's timber requirement is met from the trees grown outside forests (Dhillon et al., 2018).
Demand and supply of industrial wood is elevated at higher pace after the outlawing the harvesting of green timber from the reserved as well as private lands of India through the implementation of National Forest Policy 1988. As per the FSI (2019) reports states that as being 21.67% of forest area contributes only 3 million cubic meter wood (approximately 6 %) and remaining 44 million cubic meter wood comes from agroforestry sector of the country. The demand for furniture, paper and small wood has been rising between 8-12% annually (Shrivastava, 2017).Planting and maintaining trees in farm bunds is a type of agroforestry system, in order to meet the demands of fuel wood, small timber, fodder and other tree products. These trees strengthen economic security of poor farmers in case of disasters and emergencies by selling trees for cash. The effect of trees grown at bunds of cultivated fields on grain yield of wheat, barley, paddy and potato were studied by many authors (Dhillon et al., 1982(Dhillon et al., , 1984Grandstaffe et al., 1986;Saxena et al., 1990 andSac-Lee et al., 1992). Therefore promotion of agroforestry is becoming well proven solution in various parts of countries to cater the needs of farming community as well as environmental security.
The present study was conducted in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh to study the types of tree species being maintained in farm bunds, potential benefits of trees, reason for maintaining trees in bunds, etc. are discussed in detail. Sampling procedure and Survey method: A questionnaire was prepared for collecting information from the study area of Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh. Using this questionnaire relevant information was collected from 450 farmers, comprising each 150 of marginal, medium and large farmers' category which were randomly selected from the study area. Data were recorded from these selected farmers from May -June, 2021. In conformity with the set objectives of the study, a set of preliminary survey schedules has been designed for collection of data for the study. Thus, the final survey schedule has been prepared in a simple manner maintaining logical sequences and necessary adjustments.

Data analysis:
The collected data was analysed by 'Garrett scoring Technique' (Garrett and Woodworth, 1969) and presented in the results and discussion part.

Tree species planted and maintained in farm bunds
During the extensive survey it was noticed that, about 25 different types of tree species (

Reasons for opting bund planting
The reasons were obtained from farmers and ranked based on 'Garrett scoring Technique' and presented in Table-2 and Fig.2.During survey, reasons were given to farmers and asked them to rank for opting bund planting. The farmers were classified in to marginal, medium and large farmer category and noted the reasons for maintaining trees in farm bunds. Marginal farmers expressed that, meeting their daily needs from trees ranked 1 st followed by higher income and future investment with the mean score of 59.84, 56.24 and 54.81 respectively. Least score of 47.13 was goven for the last rank with the reason for efficient land utilization. Medium farmers are expressed that, higher income is the prime reason for maintaining trees in farm bunds with the mean score of 60.42 followed by future investment and promotion of TOF with the mean score of 58.36 and 54.68 respectively. Least score was given to efficient land utilization with the mean score of 49.81. With reference to large farmers' category, future investment recorded 1 st reason for adoption of bund planting with the mean score of 62.56 followed by higher income (59.61) and promotion of TOF (55.71). Meeting day to day needs reason registered least score of 45.47 in large farmers' category. Bargali et al., (2004) reported that, small landholders preferred only bamboo and Eucalyptus for bund and boundary plantations to meet their household requirements. Medium and large farmers preferred a number of species (see table) as they are into commercial production and they have better resources in the state of Chhattisgarh. Depommier et al., (2002) articulated that the needs and strategies of small farmers usually correspond to subsistence agriculture with low inputs and, interestingly, a high level of diversification, which includes tree products and services. The multipurpose use of species partly satisfies the basic needs of poor farmers. Saravanan (2021) revealed that, nonavailability of agricultural labour (ranked first in four agroclimatic zones) and higher returns from tree components (ranked first in two agroclimatic zones) registered higher mean score and ranked among other reasons for adoption of agroforestry systems in different agroclimatic regions of Tamil Nadu.

Level of domestication and extend of adoption of bund planting
The level of domestication and extend of adoption was analysed and presented in Table-3

Constraints faced by the farmers in adoption of bund planting
The constraints faced by the farming communities are analysed and presented in Table-4 and revelead that, most of the farmers are facing constraints in getting quality planting materials (82.70%) and this leads to poor growth and form of trees in later stage. Moreover, there is no certified central nurseries in this region for distribution of quality planting material to stakeholders especially to farmers. In the case of technology, non availability of tree cultivation techniques (88.44%) and poor forestry extension strategies (83.33%) plays major constraints in promotion of TOF in this region. Unlike in agriculture, there is no proper extension mechanasim for forestry in promotion of TOF and also there is no or very limited resources are available in tree cultivation techniques, which are acceable to farmers'. In agroforestry, marketing (89.11%) and value chain models are playing major role. Unlike in agriculture, in forestry/agroforestry, there is no

IV. CONCLUSION
From the above study, it showed that, all the farming category are showing interests in maintaing trees in farm bunds for various end uses. Further, the level of domestication and extend of adoption varies according to farmers category and their economic condition. Invariabely, farmers are facing constraints in getting quality planting materials and tree cultivation technologies. Also, there is no regulated market mechanism and value chain for agroforestry products. Farmers will come forward to grow more trees especially in farm bunds, if these constraints will be addressed for the benefit of farming community.