Abstract

Syed Muhammad Akmal Rahim, Shahida Hasnain and Jabeen Farkhanda

Against a world average of 25% area under forests, Pakistan has around 5% and Punjab has only 2% area under manageable and productive forests. The present deteriorating condition of the forests in Punjab has bleak prospects of improvement and expansion in near future due to ever increasing demand for agriculture produce. In view of the present situation the best possible solution seems to be offered by Farm forestry/agroforestry that models planting trees and agricultural crops together, which unfortunately, has not been utilized to its full potential. Based on physiographic, climate and ecology, Pakistan is divided into nine major ecological or vegetative zones, which are further sub-divided into 18 habitat types – an arrangement for the development of protected areas system in terms of representative ecotypes. During the survey of farm plantations about 400 soil samples were collected and their physical and chemical analysis was conducted for the comparison of the four Agro ecological zones of the Punjab Province of Pakistan with regards to agroforestry. A comparison of the characteristics of soils taken from various farm plantations necessitated a prior evaluation of nitrogen and phosphorous as well as their composition in order to ascertain whether the soils were texturally similar or not. In case of Agroforestry, the type of soil is one of the major factors for the classification of different suitable species of plants. The results of the soil analysis of various Agro ecological zones and the consequent recommendation of the associated suitable species, aids the agrofarmers to pick out the best possible option.