6.18% of India’s land highly suitable for agroforestry: Data

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana have emerged the top large-sized states suitable for agroforestry

Around 6.18% and 4.91% of India’s land is highly and moderately suitable for agroforestry, respectively, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro’s) geographical data has revealed.

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Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana have emerged the top large-sized states suitable for agroforestry while Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, and Nagaland ranked highest among the medium-sized states according to the satellite data published on the Bhuvan website.

The data is important because it aligns with global and national commitments such as the Paris Agreement, Bonn Challenge, UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Green India Mission, Isro said on Monday.

The contentious forest conservation amendment act which was passed last year exempts plantations on private land from the category of forests, facilitating harvesting of agroforestry crop. The ISRO data is expected to give district level information on land suitable for agroforestry. Niti Ayog is utilising remote sensing and GIS to assess agroforestry suitability across all districts in India through Isro.

Niti Ayog has said the Isro initiative aligns with two international commitments--restoring 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 and creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (under the Paris Agreement).

“Due to the significance of goods and services provided by agroforestry, the Union Budget of the Government of India (FY-2022-23) has underlined the promotion of agroforestry and private forestry as a priority. India, the seventh-largest country globally, faces issues such as increased built-up areas, degraded land, and imbalanced resources. Approximately 16.96% of the total geographical area is wasteland, requiring transformation for productive use. Geospatial technologies and GIS are employed to map and prioritize these wastelands for agroforestry interventions,” Niti Ayog said in a statement on February 12.

Finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman during her budget speech of 2022-23 said :  “The policies and required legislative changes to promote agroforestry and private forestry will be brought in. In addition, financial support will be provided to farmers belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who want to take up agroforestry.”

The guidelines available on the Bhuvan website state that mainly wastelands will be considered for agroforestry. This definition incorporates 23 categories including land with gullies and ravins, that with dense scrub and open scrub, waterlogged and marshy land, land affected by salinity, degraded pastures, and degraded forest.

Environmental experts have raised concerns about the use of wastelands. “The lands in question here are mostly commons which are not empty spaces. They are important not just to support community livelihood but also endangered biodiversity. Prior to locking them for plantations it may be prudent to carry out social and environmental impact assessments of the proposal,” said Kanchi Kohli, independent legal and policy researcher.

“There were apprehensions that plantations on the lands of individuals and organisations can attract provisions of the Forest Conservation Act. Therefore, clarity has been provided in the bill that provisions of the Act will not be applicable in the private lands, which will encourage plantation in private lands, thereby helping the country to increase the area under green cover, enhancing the carbon sink and reducing the biotic pressure on forests,” environment minister Bhupender Yadav had said in an interview to HT on August 12.

Isro’s Bhuvan website also provides a list of species that can be planted under agro-forestry projects in various states.