ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF AILANTHUS EXCELSA BASED AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM

– This experiment was carried out at farmer’s field to evaluate the performance of different agricultural crops under Ailanthus excelsa (mahaneem) based agroforestry system (AFS) at a spacing of 3.6 × 2.1 m during Rabi season 2014-15. After 2 years of mahaneem plantation, yield of agricultural crops (potato, onion and wheat) were significantly reduced under mahaneem based AFS as compared to sole crop (devoid of tree). Among all the crops, the maximum yield was recorded in onion (18750 kg ha -1 ) which was closely followed by potato (15000 kg ha -1 ) under mahaneem based AFS during the year of experimentation. The highest per cent decrease in yield over control was recorded in potato (33.3%) and it followed the order: onion (21.05%) > wheat (15.0%). On the other hand, among all the crops grown under mahaneem based AFS, the maximum net return were found in wheat crop (Rs. 7525/ha), which was closely followed by onion with the net returns (Rs. 6515/ha) during the study period.