Restoring Soil Fertility, Productivity and Biodiversity through Participatory Agroforestry: Evidence from Madhupur Sal Forest, Bangladesh

Kazi Kamrul Islam (), Md. Saifullah, M. Golam Mahboob, Kazi Noor-E-Alam Jewel, S. M. Kamran Ashraf and Kimihiko Hyakumura
Additional contact information
Kazi Kamrul Islam: Department of Agroforestry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh
Md. Saifullah: Natural Resources Management Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Dhaka 1215, Bangladesh
M. Golam Mahboob: Natural Resources Management Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Dhaka 1215, Bangladesh
Kazi Noor-E-Alam Jewel: Natural Resources Management Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Dhaka 1215, Bangladesh
S. M. Kamran Ashraf: Department of Agroforestry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh
Kimihiko Hyakumura: Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: Species diversity and soil quality are deteriorating due to continuous disturbances in ecosystems caused by human interference. However, agroforestry is considered a good approach to minimizing environmental problems. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the impacts of participatory agroforestry on restoring soil fertility, farm productivity and biodiversity in the degraded Madhupur Sal forest of Bangladesh. The study purposefully selected 40 common agroforestry programs in Madhupur Sal forest for the collection of soil and plant data from 2020 to 2023. Agroforestry programs have improved soil organic matter, soil carbon, pH, and available N, P and K content to a substantial degree and protected soil degradation, enhancing yield. The soil improvement index represents the potentiality of agroforestry in restoring soil nutrients and carbon in the form of organic matter, which is an important indicator for carbon sequestration and mitigating the impacts of climate change. The resultant cost–benefit and land equivalent ratios were steadily higher, which corroborates the greater productivity and profitability of agroforestry compared to monoculture systems. In contrast, agroforestry restored 31 plant species, opening up opportunities for restoring plant species in the threatened forest ecosystem. Therefore, this study recommended selecting appropriate site-specific species for managing agroforestry and restoring ecosystems.

Keywords: soil nutrients; yield; cost–benefit; land equivalent ratio; species richness; agroforestry; Sal forests (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/3/326/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/3/326/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:3:p:326-:d:1350735

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().