Mango-toria based agri-horti model for degraded foothills of north-western Himalayan region.
Saroj P. L., Sharma N. K., Dadhwal K. S., Shrimali S. S.
Author Affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences, CSWCRTI, Dehradun - 248 195, Uttaranchal, India.
Indian Journal of Soil Conservation 32 : 231-234
Abstract : The mango-toria-based agri-horti model was studied under a gravely riverbed land in foothills of north-western Himalayan region (Dehradun, Uttar Pradesh, India) from 1995 to 1997. The perennial overstorey component, mango, was managed by drip irrigation system while the annual understorey component, toria, was raised under rainfed conditions. At the initial stage, the overall growth of mango plants was not much influenced when toria was grown as an intercrop in comparison to sole plantation of mango. Approximately 3.68 q ha-1 (average of 1996 and 1997) grain yield of toria was obtained under gravely rainfed conditions. The yield of toria was highly influenced by distribution of rains during the growing period. Direction had no significant effect on the yield of toria but a negative response was recorded at close proximity with tree canopy due to shade effect. There were significant differences in dry matter and grain yield of toria under varying topsoil depths, which increased with increasing depth of topsoil. The net income of ~Rs.3000 ha-1 year-1 can be obtained by growing toria as an intercrop with mango orchard under gravely rainfed conditions.