Economics and yield performance of some short duration fruit and medicinal crops under agrisilvicultural system in rainfed uplands of Odisha

A field experiment was conducted during 2011-12 in an agrisilvicultural system consisting of two silvicultural species viz. Acacia mangium (mangium) and Gmelina arborea (gamhar) planted in 2000 at a spacing of 8m x 2m and four agricultural crops viz. Ananas comosus (pineapple), Aloe vera (aloevera), Andrographis paniculata(kalmegh) and Curcuma amada (mangoginger) were raised in the 1st week of July, 2011.The maximum volume increment were achieved by mangium with pineapple (16.53 m3/ha). Pineapple also registered the maximum fruit yield of 9981Kgha-1 under mangium and minimum under gamhar (9106 Kgha-1). The fresh leave yield of aloevera (8635Kg ha-1) was maximum under mangium which is statistically at par with gamhar. However, kalmegh recorded maximum dry plant yield of 1239 Kgha-1 under open condition followed by 1072 Kgha-1 under gamhar and 823 Kgha-1 under mangium. Similarly, mangoginger exhibited maximum rhizome yield of 3300 Kgha-1 under open condition followed by 1979 Kgha-1 under gamhar and 1597 Kgha-1 under mangium. The trend of crop yield under both the trees and open condition was: Pineapple >Aloevera>Mangoginger>Kalmegh. A. mangium with pineapple based agrisilvicultural system recorded the highest gross return, net return and BCR as compared to other agrisilvicultural systems and sole crops