Poplar Based Agroforestry Innovations in Haryana

Poplars are being increasingly used by the farmers of Haryana for raising short rotation, high yielding, industrial plantations in their agricultural fields. A number of poplar based agroforestry practices have been perfected by the farmers with regard to space and time sequence for the agricultural crops in order to optimise the economic returns, vis-a-vis the sustained utilization of the land resources. Poplars along with sugarcane, wheat and jowar constitute one of the most beneficial tree crop combination adopted by the farmers. A spacing of 5 m × 4 m has been found excellent for block planting whereas in row planting the trees are spaced at 1 m to 3 m apart. Poplars are known to give higher returns to the farmers as compared to other tree species.