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Afforestation Approaches for Restoring Rainforest - A Case Study
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It is important to note that over 90% of rural households in developing countries are mainly dependent on local forests as a source of firewood for cooking (Maathai, 2003). The extensive degradation of forests and lack of trees in and around crop fields forced the farming families to trek long distances in search of fire-wood. Therefore, a constant pressure on local forest as a source of fire wood supply compounded by the lack of tree-based agricultural system resulted in an inevitable deforestation (Padre, 2005; http://www.bcrt.org/seegeguda.htm). Tree - based farming is an age-old practice where farmers used to grow trees and grasses in and around the agricultural fields by maintaining the small fallow land (3-10 mts width) called 'bunds' for various purposes. However, due to the intense competition among farmers for land, most crop fields are free from any bunds and trees. As a result, the main field soil become infertile over a period of time due to soil erosion.
Planting various trees in and around crop fields will not only improve the farmer's income but also maintain biodiversity of various organisms. Therefore, BCRT team is encouraging local farmers to adapt tree - based farming in their lands. Many farmers around BCRT campus are now shifting from single crop based agriculture to tree based farming system. Villagers around BCRT campus were also encouraged to maintain bunds about three meters in width around the crop fields.
BCRT people encourage farmers to maintain rainwater harvesting pits and trees on the bunds. Generally, we recommend farmers to grow trees on east-west bunds and shrubs on north-south bunds to avoid shading effects on the main crop. We have identified some of the already existing multi-purpose bunds around BCRT campus and use these bunds for the demonstration purpose. Intercropping and crop rotation using monocot-dicot combinations were recommended for farmers to maintain soil productivity and crop diversity.
If the crop and tree diversity are maintained around the agricultural fields, one can expect effective pollination in the agricultural crops due to insects and birds activity, which improve crop yield up to 25% (Richards 2001). Farmers were strongly advised by our organization to plant 20 diverse forest tree saplings before cutting down an existing tree, which help for farmers to maintain soil health as well as benefits from wood. Growing exotic species like Eucalyptus were discouraged in this area to avoid harmful effects on soil, water and local biodiversity (Ameen, 1999; McNeely, 2001).
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