Parkia timoriana based agro-forestry system in the North-East India.

Agroforestry is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos) are deliberately used on the same land management units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. Various agroforestry based land use systems include homegardens, agri-silvi-pastoral, silvi horticultural, taungya, shifting cultivation. In North-East India, which comprises the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, Sikkim and Meghalaya, the most dominant form of land use is shifting or jhum or Swiden cultivation. About 44, 000 km² of the Northeast region is affected by shifting cultivation with nearly 0.45 million families depending on it. However, in recent past, appreciable change in land use pattern has been observed in the region with people diversifying to more settled forms of agriculture and horticulture. Yet, the concept of multi cropping by retaining or integrating tree or other crop component in the farming system has not been abandoned by most communities. Infact tree cover under agroforestry in the North East is much higher than the national average which is 5.61% of the geographical area against 3.39%, respectively. Some of the commonly grown indigenous species include Alnus nepalensis, Gmelina arborea, Michelia oblonga, Symingtonia populnia, Prunus cerasoides and Parkia timoriana. Amongst these, Parkia timoriana is drawing enormous attention among the farming communities because of its adaptability to grow in different agro-climatic regions, ease of establishment and remunerative returns.