Functional Capacity Needs Assessment for The Agroforestry Researchers in Agricultural Innovation System

Capacity needs assessment (CNA) is a procedure of assessing genuine existing capacity gaps within group members concerning knowledge, skills, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, assets, and supplementary elements obligatory for them to accomplish the pre-specified objectives. This study was undertaken to evaluate the existing capacity gaps among agroforestry researchers’ group through a closed and structured questionnaire with the six different topics consisting 24 different indicators to evaluate the existing capacity gaps among 30 participants involved with agroforestry research from different universities and the National Agricultural Research Institutes using MS Excel data schoring sheets during November 2018 to February 2019. The study focuses different functional capacity, like, capacity to navigate the complexity, collaboration, learning and reflection, engage in strategic and political processes. Age, sex, education, and occupation were the independent variables used for functional capacities. Among all the age groups, above 55 years old agroforestry researchers secured the highest score in most of the topics. Based on the analysis of the scores, the existence of opportunities to better know each other and improve collaboration recorded the highest score (2.59) which considered the major capacity strengths, and understanding of knowledge flows recorded the lowest score (1.65), which was major capacity weaknesses of the niche, individually. Within them, females participant reported greater responsible leadership and more cooperative among each other. This research concluded that agroforestry researchers need strong collaboration and well known to each other for minimize the capacity gaps in agroforestry research. The tudy suggested to estabilish “National agroforestry research and development Institute” for effective and efficient agroforestry research and development by the government of Bangladesh and the concern ministry. SAARC J. Agric., 19(1): 269-279 (2021)

A Systematic Map of Agroforestry Research Focusing on Ecosystem Services in the Asia-Pacific Region

Agroforestry is an intensive land management system that integrates trees into land already used for crop and animal farming. This provides a diverse range of ecosystem services by bridging the gaps between agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry. It is an important approach to improve the environmental, economic, and social benefits of complex social–ecological systems in the Asia-Pacific region. This paper aims to examine the research trends in agroforestry and the current state of knowledge, as well as the research gaps in the ecosystem services of agroforestry in this region. A systematic mapping methodology was applied, where analysis units were academic articles related to agroforestry practices in the Asia-Pacific region. The articles published between 1970 and 2018 were collected through the international specialized academic database, SCOPUS. They were coded according to the types of agroforestry practices and ecosystem services. The research result indicates silvorable systems, especially plantation crop combinations, tree management, habitats for species, biological controls, and maintenance of genetic diversity and gene-pools, are the most prominent in the agroforestry research from the Asia-Pacific region. Approximately 60% of all research articles include case studies from India, China, Indonesia, and Australia. Research on agroforestry has changed following the international discourse on climate change and biodiversity. Therefore, this systematic map improves our understanding of the nature, volume, and characteristics of the research on ecosystem services with regard to agroforestry in the Asia-Pacific region. It provides scholars with a springboard for further meta-analysis or research on agroforestry and ecosystem services.

Shooting and Rooting Behaviour in Relation to Season, Age and Growing Conditions of Dendrocalamus asper Backer

The experiment was conducted at Agroforestry Research Centre, of G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar to assess the effect of age (one and two year old), growing condition (intermittent misting and no misting) and different seasons (summer, monsoon, autumn and spring) on rooting and shooting of culm cuttings of Dendrocalamus asper. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with three replications. The findings indicated that in D. asper, one year old culm cuttings in the intermittent misting condition showed good results. The findings also indicated that shooting and rooting per cent of culm cuttings planted in different season showed response as Spring (March)> Summer (June)> Monsoon (August)> Autumn (October).

Trends and Features of Agroforestry Research Based on Bibliometric Analysis

The world is faced with dual challenges to ensure food security for its large and still growing population and to mitigate climate change. It is necessary to develop more diversified and multifunction agricultural systems to address the challenges. Therefore, as a reasonable land use practice, agroforestry has become the hotspot in scientific research in recent decades. This study performed quantitative and qualitative analyses of agroforestry research published between 1990 and 2018 based on bibliometric methods, expecting to guidance for further research in order to scientifically understand of the trends and features of agroforestry research over time and by region. A total of 4204 publications were obtained from Web of Science. The results show that the research interest in the agroforestry field has significantly enhanced, and about 139 countries have been involved with the research in this field. These publications cover 66 subject categories and a great diversity research theme. Since 1990, the popular keywords in agroforestry research have been changed from “Intercropping”, “Alley cropping”, and “Multipurpose trees” to “Carbon sequestration”, “Ecosystem service”, and “Climate change”. This indicates that the theme of agroforestry research has changed and the research scale is gradually expanding. Furthermore, agroforestry research themes vary with regions, since different regions have various requirements on the function of the agroforestry system. In the end, given the current trend of agroforestry science, we conclude a list of research potentials of agroforestry in the future.

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT CULTURE MEDIA ON CALLUS CULTURES OF SOME GENOTYPE OF MEDICAGO SATIVA

Eight genotypes of Lucerne as C-10, IG-1212, IL-75, A-3, LLC-9, LLC-3, Anand-2 and AL-95-12 obtained from Indian Grassland Fodder and Agroforestry Research Institute, Jhansi. This genotype observed the colour and texture of the callus from explants. The genotypic differences were found significant but the media differences were observed to be non-significant. The best callus quality in terms of callus colour was observed from both hypocotyl and epicotyls explant in genotype IG-1212 whereas the genotype AL-95-12 exhibited best callus colour quality from cotyledon explants. The best callus texture was observed in genotype Anand-2 and AL-95-12 from hypocotyls explants, in genotype C-10, IL-75 from epicotyl explant and in all the genotypes except LLC-3 in cotyledon explants. MS and SH medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/l 2,4-D, 1.0 mg/l NAA and 0.2 mg/l BAP in general showed the best callus quality from different explants.