Productivity and carbon sequestration by a tree-based land use systems in dry Inceptisols of central India

Tree based land use systems have been proven to be climate resilient land use that can enhance productivity and improve livelihood security. Productivity, carbon sequestration and economic viability of four land use systems (LUS) viz., Gmelina based (GAF),Meliabased (MAF), Neolamarckia based agroforestry (NAF) and pure agriculture (PA)were compared in the dry zone in India.Chickpea equivalent grain yield (CEGY) was significantly higher in pure agriculture by 4.4–7.5% for chickpea, 1.0-3.7 for lentil and 0.9–2.3% for grass pea when compared to tree-based land use systems. Maximum gross returns were also obtained from pure chickpea (₹74337/ha), followed by lentil (₹56368/ha) and grass pea (₹21030/ha) plots. Tree spacing of 5 m × 3 m recorded highest tree biomass and biomass C in Neolamarckia (48.2&24.1 Mg/ha) followed by Melia (41.8&21.0 Mg/ha) and Gmelina (22.3&11.1 Mg/ha), respectively.Crop production decreased in tree-based land use systems but overall production (crop+tree) is higher due to carbon sequestration potential in tree biomass.Hence, tree-based land use systems are an alternative climate resilient land use option for drought prone semi-arid topics of Bundelkhand region, India.