Trees under Agroforestry: An Analysis of Farmers' Preferences for Tree Species

Abstract

Present investigation revealed the farmers preferences for trees in agroforestry and relationship between age, land holding  of the farmers with trees preferences. The total numbers of trees available with the respondent farmers are 2950 trees. Out  of which 880 trees are planted. On an average every farmer has 46.83 trees. The average numbers of planted and natural  trees are 4.67 and 35.08 respectively. Shisham was found to be the first preference of the farmers and then Teak followed  by Neem respectively. It was found that the respondent of age group 21-40 years (young), Shisham was the first  preference, while Sagon, Neem and Subabul are second, third and fourth choice, respectively. For respondents between  41-60 age group, (middle age) the choice of MPTS was more or less similar to young respondents. The older respondent  (61-80 years) preferred Shisham, Sagon, Siris and Butea as their preferences in descending order. The overall preference  of MPTS in relation to age was found as Shisham-first, Sagon-second, Neem-third and the Sirisis as fourth choice. The  marginal farmers preferred trees in descending order as Shisham, Sagon, Subabul and Eucalyptus. For small farmers the  preferences were as Shisham-first, Neem- second, Eucalyptus- third and Teak-fourth. For older farmers the preferences  were as Shisham-first, Teak-second, Eucalyptus-third and Neem as fourth choice. The overall preference for MPTS  reported as Shisham-first, Teak-second, Eucalyptus-third and Neem as fourth choice. The study found that there was  positive correlation (0.95) between holding size of the farmers and the availability of trees in their field. It indicates that  higher holding size promote more number of trees with farmers.