Using the “Edges in nature”; Perennials plantation on field/farm bunds and pond bunding

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The mention of farm fields often makes one think of the open fields with crops. Primarily all the interventions are crops based; bio-manure applications; NRM (natural resources measures) like field bunds, cropping patterns, and IPM (integrated pest management) methods are some of the popular measures. These all are practices explicitly for fields and only focusing on practices within fields makes the edges, the bunds, partitions and contour lines underutilized spaces with high potential. A traditional agricultural practice is to grow agroforestry trees (For example; Mango, Khamer (Gmelina Arborea), Indian Gooseberry, Guava, Eucalyptus, and more) on the bunds. In the late 1970s, to reduce the pressure on forest resources Government has come up with the concept of Social forestry to utilize the large areas available on bunds, river banks, and canal banks to provide a great scope and opportunity for tree planting and have proven to benefit the farmers in both economic and ecological ways.

Source: The Water Channel