Agroforest Syst
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-018-0233-7
Agroforestry suitability mapping of India: geospatial
approach based on FAO guidelines
Firoz Ahmad . Md Meraj Uddin . Laxmi Goparaju
Received: 24 January 2018 / Accepted: 24 April 2018
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Agroforestry system has the enormous
capacity to achieve social, economic, and environmen-
tal goals by optimizing land productivity. The aim of
the present study was to evaluate the land potentiality in
India for agroforestry based on FAO land suitability
criteria utilizing various land, soil, climate, and topo-
graphic themes. This was achieved in GIS Domain by
integrating various thematic layers scientifically. The
analysis of land potentiality in India for agroforestry
suitability reveals 32.8% as highly suitable (S1), 40.4%
moderately suitable (S2), 11.7% marginally suit-
able (S3), and 9.1% not suitable (NS). About 52% of
land of India is under the cropland category. In addition,
it revealed that the 46% of these cropland areas fall into
high agroforestry suitable category ‘‘S1,’’ and provide
huge opportunity for harnessing agroforestry practices.
Furthermore, agroforestry suitability mapping in broad
ecosystem and in different agroecological regions will
assist various projects in India at the regional level.
Such results will also boost the various objectives of the
National Agroforestry Policy (2014, http://www.cafri.
res.in/NAF_Policy.pdf) and policymakers of India
where they need to extend it. The potential of geospatial
F. Ahmad (&)  L. Goparaju
Vindhyan Ecology and Natural History Foundation,
Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, India
e-mail: adfiroz@yahoo.com
M. M. Uddin
University Department of Mathematics, MCA, Ranchi
University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
technology can be exploited in the field of agroforestry
for the benefit of rural poor people/farmers by ensuring
food and ecological security, resilience in livelihoods,
and can sustain extreme weather events such as
droughts and climate change impact. Such type of
research can be replicated in India at village level (local
level) to state level (regional level) utilizing the sig-
nificant themes which affect the agroforestry suitabil-
ity. This will certainly fetch better results on ground and
will significantly assist the management programs.
Keywords Agroforestry  FAO  GIS  Land
suitability  Harmonized World Soil Database  India
Introduction
Agroforestry is a system of land management that
applies to both farm and forest and attained impor-
tance during the 1970 onward, due to the inclination of
the World Bank and FAO policies, scientific interest in
both intercropping and farming systems, deteriorating
food situation in many areas of the developing world,
the increasing spread of tropical deforestation, and
ecological degradation (Nair 1993). The world scien-
tists gathered together in the year 2004 in Orlando,
Florida, USA for first World Congress of Agroforestry
chaired by Nair, one of the leading scientist, to discuss
the agenda related to agroforestry with an approach of
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sustainable land use. The increasing population has
tremendous pressure on our land use system including
our natural resources leading to degradation in forest
(Fairhead and Leach 1996), rangeland (Tiffen et al.
1994), soil fertility (Phillips-Howard and Lyon 1994),
and plant biomass (Mortimore et al. 1999). Land
resources are limited and must be utilized in sustain-
able manner for the survival and prosperity of
humanity. The developing countries are facing the
major challenge of producing food, fuel, and fodder to
fulfill the demand of ever-increasing population. It is
also mandatory to ensure that the fertility of land
resources is utilized in cultivating crops. Land poten-
tiality must be evaluated so that it can be utilized for
the specific purpose. Land potentiality assessment has
been defined by FAO (1976) as ‘the analysis of land
performance when used for a specified purpose,
involving the execution and interpretation of surveys
and studies of land forms, soils, vegetation, climate
and other characteristics of land in order to identify
and make a comparison of promising kinds of land use
in terms of suitability to the objectives of the
evaluation..
Agroforestry has enormous capacity for strength-
ening the food security (Lipper et al. 2014; Tilman
et al. 2011); achieving poverty reduction (Madusa
2007); ensuring livelihood resilience (Quandt et al.
2017) in rural areas by providing several benefits
(Islam et al. 2015); enhancing the soil fertility
(Albrecht and Kandji 2003); improving the farm
household resilience (Mbow et al. 2014); raising the
quality of ecosystem (Anderson et al. 2009; Hernan-
dez et al. 2012; Asbjornsen et al. 2014); conserving
biodiversity (McNeely 2004; Jose 2012; Ramos et al.
2015), and mitigating climate change impact (Thor-
lakson and Neufeldt 2012).
In India, Agroforestry promotion is adopted from
the year 2000 onward when the National Agriculture
Policy, (2000) clearly stated that ‘‘Agriculture has
become a relatively unrewarding profession due to
generally unfavorable price regime and low value
addition, causing abandoning of farming and increas-
ing migration from rural areas.’’ Hence, the Policy
stresses, ‘‘Farmers will be encouraged to take up farm/
agro-forestry for higher income generation by evolv-
ing technology, extension and credit support packages
and removing constraints to development of agro-
forestry’’ (Prasad et al. 2002). Government of India
approved the new agroforestry policy on February 6,
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Agroforest Syst
2014, with its main aim being to identify the strategies
to expand the use of agroforestry so that it will reduce
the pressure on the existing forests and increase the
level of tree cover outside the natural forests’
boundaries.
Why is this study so important?
1. The GIS modeling concept was utilized based on
FAO guidelines for agroforestry suitability map-
ping which was never done earlier at the country
level, i.e., India.
2. India has adopted the Agroforestry policy, and
there is an urgent need to expand agroforestry
practices in new areas based on scientific
evaluation.
3. The maps delineated using geospatial technolo-
gies are still not utilized extensively in the field of
agroforestry (Ellis et al. 2000).
4. Policy makers of India dealing with agroforestry
need the results of such scientific study at various
levels of project implementation and validation.
5. Agroforestry suitability mapping in different
agroecological zones of India will greatly help
to boost and throw open possibility for new
Agroforestry ventures.
Therefore, the agroforestry suitability evaluation of
land of India is the present demand of National
Agroforestry Policy (2014) and can be rapidly ana-
lyzed using geospatial technology (Ellis et al. 2004;
Ahmad et al. 2017a) that has the advantages over the
traditional approach to evaluation which is expensive
and time-consuming.
Even though computer-based databases in plant
selection of agroforestry researches had begun prior to
1991 (Nair 1998), still not much research was
executed in the field of agroforestry suitability map-
ping. Few researchers have examined the land suit-
ability for agroforestry based on FAO guidelines.
Ritung et al. (2007) evaluated the land of Aceh Barat
District of Indonesia using climatic, soil, and topo-
graphic parameters following the FAO guidelines and
recommended lands suitable for various agroforestry
crops. Further, Kihoro et al. (2013) examined the lands
of Kirinyaga, Embu, and Mberee counties in Kenya
for rice-growing sites using biophysical data of soil,
climate, and topography using a multicriteria evalu-
ation in GIS domain based on FAO guidelines and
Agroforest Syst
found that the potential area of sites for rice growing
was 86,364 ha out of which only 12% was under rice
cultivation.
Ahmad et al. (2017a) examined the land based on
FAO guidelines on agroforestry suitability of
Chakardharpur subdivision of West Singhbhum dis-
trict of Jharkhand, India utilizing the GIS modeling
concept. The characteristic themes used for agro-
forestry suitability mapping were wetness, rainfall,
slope, elevation, and nutrient availability map. The
total open area sites were identified to be 42.4%, out of
which 21.6% sites were found to have high suitability
for agroforestry. Ahmad and Goparaju (2017a, b)
evaluated the lands based on FAO guidelines for
agroforestry suitability in Dumka and Palamu districts
of Jharkand state in India, respectively. In both these
studies, they used the themes of wetness, rainfall,
slope, elevation, and nutrient availability map for
analysis. The study reveals that the Dumka district had
total open area land grids equal to 3421 out of which
50% of grids were highly suitable for agroforestry.
Similarly, the Palamu district holds the open area land
grids equal to 3334 out of which 62% of grids were
found highly suitable for agroforestry.
Ahmad et al. (2017b) examined the lands of three
blocks of Ranchi district of Jharkhand state in India for
agroforestry suitability following the FAO guidelines
utilizing the themes wetness, rainfall, slope, elevation,
and nutrient availability map in GIS modeling domain.
Blockwise agroforestry suitability map reveals that
Rahe block has the highest S1 category equivalent to
79.1% among all three blocks.
The present study aims at applying remote sensing
(RS) and GIS toward visualizing spatial dimensions of
land, soil, climate, and topographic data to reveal
trends and interrelationships and to achieve an agro-
forestry suitability mapping of India. The agroforestry
maps were evaluated based on the various broad
ecosystems and various agroecological regions of
India.
The study area
The study area (Fig. 1) was the country, India, which
lies between 68440 N and 358300 N latitudes and
688070 E and 978250 E longitudes. Agroforestry is an
age-old system widely practiced in all ecological and
geographic regions of India based on local climatic
conditions and traditions, which vary significantly
from each other in structural complexity, species
diversity, productive and protective characteristics,
and socioeconomic satisfaction. The range varies from
shifting cultivation to the composite multistoried
home gardens of the humid coastal areas in the south
India. Over 60% of India’s total land falls under
agriculture and nearly 22% is covered by forests. Rain-
fed agriculture is always under stress due to the
absence of assured irrigation facility. India is a
geographically diverse country surrounded by the
mountainous range of Himalayas in the North, the
Thar desert in the West, the Gangetic delta in the East,
and the Deccan Plateau in the South, and the country is
home of various ecosystems with vast agroecological
diversity.
Materials and methods
Data used for suitability mapping are from the
Harmonized World Soil Database (Fischer et al.
2008), consisting of nutrient availability (sq1.asc),
nutrient retention capacity (sq2.asc), oxygen avail-
ability to roots (sq4.asc), root-penetrating capability
(sq3.asc), and toxicity (sq6.asc). The Harmonized
World Soil Database (http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/
aq361e/aq361e.pdf) is a 30 arc-second raster database
integrated with the existing regional and national
updates of soil information across the globe, which is
linked to harmonized soil property data. All datasets
which were downloaded retain seven classes. The
classes described here are qualitative, but not quanti-
tative. Only classes 1–4 are corresponding to an
assessment of soil limitations on plant growth (http://
www.fao.org/soils-portal/soil-survey/soil-maps-and-
databases/harmonized-world-soil-database-v12/en/).
Class 1 is generally rated between 80 and 100% of the
plant-growth potential, class 2 between 60 and 80%,
class 3 between 40 and 60%, and class 4 \ 40%.
Classes 5–7 are non-soil, permanent frost, and watery
areas. In this study, we have utilized classes 1–4.
Class 1 is rated as high, class 2 is rated as medium,
and classes 3 and 4 are rated as low, as far as agro-
forestry suitability mapping is concerned. Class 5, 6,
and 7 were considered not suitable for agroforestry
due to constraint of cultivation. Climate data (tem-
perature and precipitation) utilized here were down-
loaded from the WorldClim-Global Climate Data
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Fig. 1 The study area map
website (http://worldclim.org/version2). Climate
data are having the spatial resolution of 1 km and
were collected from the year 1970 to the year 2000 by
utilizing 9000–60,000 weather stations that were
further interpolated using thin-plate splines. Satellite
data improved prediction accuracy to a large extent
on that area where the station density was low,
whereas global cross-validation correlations were
found to be C 0.99 for temperature, and 0.86 for
precipitation (Fick and Hijmans 2017). We have
utilized digital elevation model GTOPO30 with a
horizontal grid spacing of 30 arc-seconds (roughly
1 km) for generating the slope map. The MODIS
NDVI data of December 2016 (250-m spatial reso-
lution) were downloaded from the portal of the Uni-
ted States Geological Survey (USGS). We have also
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Agroforest Syst
applied the agroecological region map of India
showing various broad ecosystems (Bandyopadhyay
et al. 2009), and all categories were brought under
GIS domain for further evaluation. We used SPOT4
satellite-based vegetation cover (VEGA 2000 data-
set) having 1-km spatial resolution for this study. The
legend of the vegetation cover was defined by the
FAO Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) with
the help of the regional expert. The south-central
Asian regional dataset (http://forobs.jrc.ec.europa.
eu/products/glc2000/products.php) covering the
south Asian region (Roy et al. 2003) was the subset
provided by India’s boundary shape file. We have
examined the vegetation cover of India and extracted
the classes 18 and 19 which represent the category
cropland (irrigated, unirrigated, and flooded) and
Agroforest Syst
which were further merged into one category for our
analysis.
We have used Arc/GIS and Erdas imagine software
to execute the above-mentioned objectives. The
flowchart has been displayed for agroforestry suitabil-
ity mapping (Fig. 2).
Nutrient availability and retention capacity map
This soil quality is significant component in farming.
Nutrient availability and retention capacity data are
important for plant growth and utilized for agro-
forestry suitability of land. Ahmad et al. (2017b) also
utilized soil nutrient as one of the parameter for
agroforestry suitability mapping. The nutrient avail-
ability data were generated using soil texture/struc-
ture, organic carbon, pH, and total exchangeable
bases, whereas nutrient retention-capacity data was
generated using soil organic carbon, soil texture, base
saturation, and cation exchange capacities of soil and
of clay fraction. We have generated nutrient avail-
ability and retention capacity map of India (Fig. 3)
utilizing the nutrient availability data and nutrient
retention capacity data by giving equal importance to
each other in GIS domain.
Fig. 2 Flowcharts for
agroforestry suitability
mapping
Oxygen availability to root zone
Oxygen availability in soils influences the plant
growth (https://www.growertalks.com/Article/
?articleid=22058) is largely determined by drainage
characteristics of soils. No nutrient absorption can take
place at the root zone unless oxygen is adequately
present in soil strata. The determination of soil drai-
nage classes is based on procedures developed at FAO
(FAO 1995). These procedures take into account
various soil types, soil textures, soil phases, and terrain
slopes. The oxygen available to plant root zone map of
India is presented in Fig. 4.
Rooting conditions
Roots provide physiologic functions including the
uptakes of water and nutrients which are essential for
plant growth. Rooting conditions are an important
factor for agroforestry suitability because tree roots
extend to deeper soil horizons, and they provide
adequate understanding for proper tree crop selection
based on soil depth (Nair 2011). Rooting conditions
may be affected by the presence of gravel and
stoniness limiting the effective rooting depth or
decreasing the effective volume accessible for root
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Fig. 3 Soil nutrient and
retention capacity map
penetration in soil affecting the crop yield (Graveel
et al. 2002). Rooting conditions map of India (Fig. 5)
adequately represented shows strong relationship
between soil conditions of the rooting zone and crop
growth.
Toxicities
Low pH leads to acidity-related toxicities which in
turn lead to various deficiencies such as phosphorus
and molybdenum which are essential for plant growth.
Calcareous soils exhibit generally micronutrient defi-
ciencies such as iron, manganese, and zinc, and in
some cases, toxicity of molybdenum. Gypsum
strongly restricts available soil moisture. This soil
toxicity is therefore only including calcium carbonate-
and gypsum-related problems. Plant growth is
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adversely affected due to the presence of calcium
carbonate and gypsum (FAO 1990). The toxicity map
of India is presented in Fig. 6.
Vegetation map—NDVI
The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
is the most commonly used vegetation index and is an
indicator of plant ‘‘greenness’’ or photosynthetic
activity (Rani et al. 2015). NDVI map generated from
MODIS was used in this study and is shown in Fig. 7.
It has been found that there is a significant relationship
between NDVI values and vegetation density (Fig. 8).
The higher the value of NDVI, the denser is the
vegetation and lesser the erosion (Duran et al. 2008).
Agroforest Syst
Fig. 4 Oxygen available to
plant root zone map
Temperature and precipitation map
Climate plays significant role in growth of plant
species (Hatfield et al. 2011). The monthwise Climate
data (temperature and precipitation) were utilized, and
annual mean temperature (Fig. 9) and annual precip-
itation (Fig. 10) maps were generated and widely used
for GIS modeling (Fick and Hijmans 2017). FAO
(1976) also recommended mean annual temperature,
and rainfall/precipitation, which are the dominant
themes for land evaluations and are widely used
(Ritung et al. 2007; Ahmad et al. 2017a, b; Ahmad and
Goparaju 2017a, b) for agroforestry suitability
mapping.
Generation of slope maps from digital elevation
model
Topographic variations influence vegetation growth,
distribution, and pattern (Bunyan et al. 2015). Arc GIS
Software modules have the capacity for processing
vast datasets for various applications. Spatial Analyst
module is one among them. Surface submodule of
Spatial Analyst module is used for processing digital
elevation model GTOPO30 and for generating slope
map (Fig. 8). The slope gradient is an important
topographic factor which plays a significant role in soil
erosion intensity and thus affects the plant growth. As
the slope increases, the soil water infiltration capacity
decreases, and significant increases in the runoff
amounts are observed (Assouline and Ben-Hur 2006)
leads to erosion.
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Fig. 5 Rooting conditions
map
Agroforestry suitability mapping using GIS
modeling
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has
approved methods to evaluate suitability of land (FAO
1976). The geospatial technology with various free
dataset accessibility nowadays makes it easy to
examine the land to achieve certain specific goal
based on their utilization. GIS modeling software
provides great opportunity to pool different thematic
layers as per its importance. Such analysis needs
appropriate datasets, high-skilled GIS experts conver-
sant with modeling concept, and adequate lab facilities
for execution of the whole work (Table 1).
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Agroforestry suitability analysis
Agroforestry land suitability map was generated by
pooling all essential thematic layers such as soil
nutrient and retention capacity, oxygen available to
plant root zone, rooting conditions, soil toxicity,
annual mean temperature, annual precipitation, veg-
etation (NDVI), and slope degree as per its relative
importance-based weight percent factors (Table 2).
The suitability map was classified into four groups
(Table 1; Fig. 11) of highly suitable (S1), moderately
suitable (S2), marginally suitable (S3), and not
suitable (NS).
Agroforest Syst
Fig. 6 Soil toxicity and
plant-growth response map
Results and discussion
Agroforestry suitability mapping
Agroforestry suitability maps generated for the whole
India showed 32.8% as highly suitable, 40.4% as
moderately suitable, 11.7% as marginally suitable, and
9.1% as not suitable (Table 3; Fig. 11). The total
cropland area/utilized agricultural area (UAA) percent
in India was found to be approximately 52%. The
cross-evaluation of cropland with agroforestry suit-
ability reveals that 46 and 48% of this land fall into
high agroforestry suitable (S1) and moderately agro-
forestry suitable (S2) categories, respectively.
High suitability areas
These are the areas with mean annual temperature (°C)
greater than 24 and having annual rainfall greater than
1300 mm, and with relatively very high moisture
content in soil. The soil nutrient availability and
retention capacity for plant are high with adequate
oxygen available in the root zone. The soil toxicity is
low with sufficient root penetrating capability mostly
in the plain area (slope less than 1%) with high NDVI
values (low erosion degree) providing adequate
favorable condition for plant growth. It constitutes
1,227,453 km2 (37.4% of the total area) of Indian land.
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Fig. 7 NDVI map
Moderate suitability
These are the areas with mean annual temperature
(°C) in the range of 20–24, having annual rainfalls
varying from 1300 to 900 mm. The soil nutrient
availability and retention capacity, and oxygen avail-
able in the root zone for plant are moderate. The soil
toxicity and root penetrating capability is medium,
mostly in the undulating area (slope ranges from 1 to
15%) with medium NDVI values (medium erosion
degree) providing moderate favorable condition for
plant growth. It constitutes of 1,371,087 km2 (41.8%
of total area) of Indian land.
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Agroforest Syst
Marginal suitability
These are the areas with mean annual temperature
(°C) in the range of 16–20, having annual rainfall less
than 900 mm. The soil nutrient availability and
retention capacity, the oxygen available in the root
zone, and the root penetrating capability for plant are
low. The soil toxicity is high mostly in high slopes
(15% to 35%) with low NDVI values (high erosion
degree) providing low favorable condition for plant
growth. It constitutes 383,431 km2 (11.7% of total
area) of Indian land.
Agroforest Syst
Fig. 8 Slope map
Not suitable areas
These areas are severely problematic for plant growth
because of very low temperature and fall on permanent
frost and snow area/river/dams/rock and heavy slopes
(more than 35%) and show almost nil favorability for
the agroforestry. It comprised 298,029 km2 (9.1% of
total area) of the total Indian land.
Agroforestry suitability at ecosystem level
Agroforestry system is a viable practice in extreme
weather events (floods and droughts, and climate
change), fast degradation of land productivity, and
other environmental hazards scenario, which can
achieve social, economic, and ecological sustainabil-
ity (http://www.fao.org/docrep/ARTICLE/WFC/XII/
0051-B5.HTM). The annual income of farmers can be
increased by several folds without harming our exist-
ing ecosystem by adopting skillful utilization of land
resources with appropriate soil- and water-conserva-
tion measures. FAO has given emphasis to analyze the
land suitability and its productive potential under
specified uses among all agroecological zones (http://
www.fao.org/docrep/w2962e/w2962e-04.htm). There
is a need to adopt a diversity of tree species which
match with the existing ecological conditions and
farmer needs (Iiyama et al. 2016). Agroecological
region map of India was broadly classified into five
ecosystem levels which were further evaluated with
agroforestry suitability categories (S1, S2, S3, and NS)
and are shown in Tables 4 and 5. The Table 5 shows
the agroforestry suitability in various agroecological
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Fig. 9 Annual mean
temperature
regions in only cropland area/utilized agricultural area
(UAA).
The arid and semiarid ecosystems show low
agroforestry suitability (S3) which are characterized
by severe weather conditions such as low rainfall
pattern, high solar radiation, high wind velocity, and
increased evapotranspiration. The productivity poten-
tial of the land is also usually low due to immature,
structure-less, and very coarse texture of soil with low
water retention capacity and poor nutrient status.
Agroforestry practices such as growing agricultural
crops under the tree crop are also an age-old tradition
in this region. The soil and water conservation and rain
water-harvesting practices are required to be imple-
mented intensively to store the seasonal rain water
which will retain soil moisture for longer periods and
protect it from erosion. The irrigated land can be
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utilized for silvipastoral system (Forestry ? Pas-
ture ? Livestock), Agrisilvipastoral system (Agricul-
ture ? Forestry ? Pasture ? Livestock), and Horti-
pastoral system (Orchards ? Pasture ? Livestock).
The tree species such as Prosopis cineraria, Acacia
nilotica, Azadirachta indica, Acacia tortilis, and
Albizia lebbeck can be grown along with agriculture
crop. Shelterbelt plantation along the agriculture field
will be highly useful to protect the land against high
wind and conserve the soil moisture during hot-
weather conditions.
The subhumid and humid–perhumid ecosystems
are highly suitable for agroforestry practices and are
characterized by favorable weather conditions such as
adequate rainfall with highly fertile soil, abundant soil
nutrient, and adequate soil moisture retention capac-
ity. The humid and subhumid low lands can be utilized
Agroforest Syst

Fig. 10 Annual
precipitation

Table 1 Suitability classification as per FAO guidelines

Order Class Description

Suitability Highly Land having no significant limitations toward application of a given use, or only minor
categories suitable (S1) limitations that will not significantly reduce productivity and benefits and will not raise inputs
above an acceptable level
Moderately Land having limitations which in aggregate are moderately severe for sustained application of
suitable (S2) a given use, the limitations will reduce productivity or benefits and increase required inputs to
the extent that the overall advantage to be gained from the use
Marginally Land having limitations which in aggregate are severe for sustained application of a given use
suitable (S3) and will so reduce productivity and benefits, or increase required inputs, that this expenditure
will be only marginally justified
Not suitable- Land that cannot support the land use on a sustained basis, or land on which benefits do not justify necessary inputs
NS

for home garden, plantation crop combinations, mul- conservation measures such as small check dams,
tilayer tree garden, and alley cropping and other ponds, in situ moisture-conservation practices such as
intercropping systems. The soil- and water- mulching zero tillage, ridge, and furrow system, and

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Table 2 Land requirements for agroforestry purposes

Land qualifies Land characteristics Weight S1 S2 S3 N
(%)

Sufficiency of energy Mean annual temperature 16.66 [ 24 20–24 16–20 \ 16

(°C)
Sufficiency of water Precipitation (mm) 16.66 [ 1300 1300–900 \ 900 –
Sufficiency of nutrients Nutrient availability and 16.66 High Medium Low –
retention capacity
Sufficiency of oxygen and Oxygen availability in 8.33 High Medium Low –
of root condition the root zone
Root penetration 8.33 High Medium Low –
capability to soil
Toxicity Toxicity 16.66 Low Medium High –
Erosion degree/ease of Vegetation vigorous/ 8.33 High Medium Low –
water control NDVI
Slope angle (degree) 8.33 0–1 1–15 15–35 [ 35
Ease of cultivation Stones/rock/dams/Ice – – – – Rock/dams/river water/ice and
and snow snow/permanent frost area

strip cropping will be highly useful. These measures
will conserve rain water and provide the moisture to
the next-season crop. Such practice will significantly
enhance soil moisture, reduce the soil erosion and
nutrient loss, and can be adequately utilized for
agrisilvihorticulture system. The fruit plants such as
Mangifera indica, Syzygium cumini, Artocarpus
heterophyllus, papaya, banana, etc. can be grown.
The highlands with rouged terrain can be utilized for
silvipastoral system.
The coastal ecosystems provide many services to
human society and are of great economic value. They
are among the most productive land and highly
suitable for various agroforestry practices. The eastern
coast (except Tamil Nadu) receives good precipitation
due to active monsoon wind from June to September,
whereas western coast receives very high rainfall
during the same period. The evergreen and semi-
evergreen plant species are abundant, which shows the
rich biodiversity in the Western Ghats of the west-
coast ecosystem. The home garden, agrisilvicultural,
silvopastoral, agrosilvopastoral, agrosilvofishery (e.g.,
integrated rice–fish systems, trenches/ponds in orch-
ards, mangroves, and brackish water fish/shrimp
production) systems constitute the dominant agro-
forestry types in this region. The agroforestry practices
such as multipurpose trees and shrubs with agricultural
crops and/or livestock are common in dry areas of
coastal Tamil Nadu. Some species, such as Prosopis
juliflora and Delonix elata, can be used to ameliorate
the land suffering from salinity. The tree species
Casuarina equisetifolia, Ailanthus triphysa, Tectona
grandis, Erythrina indica, Bombax ceiba, Borassus
flabellifer, Tamarindus indica, Ceiba pentandra, and
Acacia leucophloea can be used in agroforestry
system in coastal ecosystem.
Conclusion
This study utilized the GIS modeling concept by
integrating various themes together from the diverse
sources of information, which have significant relation
to agroforestry practices. Computer-based analysis of
various datasets and its logical evaluation in GIS
domain greatly helps in decision-making. The gov-
ernment of India has adopted agroforestry policy
realizing its potentiality. It is the first nation in the
world to do so. Agroforestry has tremendous capacity
to achieve sustainability in agriculture and allied
sector while optimizing the land productivity to help
poor and marginalized farmers suffering from climate
change impact. Agroforestry is seen as a viable
solution which can fulfill the demand of food,
nutrition, energy, and employment and can protect
our threatened environment. Our research of

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Agroforest Syst

Fig. 11 Agroforestry
suitability map of India

Table 3 Agroforestry suitability of study area with area to 46%. Over 80 percent farmers in India are small
statistics land-holders, and majority of them rely on rains for
Agroforestry suitability Area in km2 Percentage agriculture practices. They only utilize the land for
agriculture practice during the monsoon season. For
Highly suitable (S1) 1,227,453 37.4 the rest of the period, land is not utilized for cultivation
Moderately suitable (S2) 1,371,087 41.8 for want of irrigation facility. The rainwater-harvest-
Marginally suitable (S3) 383,431 11.7 ing system when integrated with various soil- and
Not suitable (NS) 298,029 9.1 water-conservation practices at watershed level will
facilitate soil moisture retention in the land until the
next crop season. Several such studies were demon-
strated, which have changed the crop cultivation
agroforestry suitability mapping based on FAO guide-
scenario (Ahmad and Goparaju 2017b) at the local
lines will be of great help to the agroforestry policy
levels. Present research has its own importance in
makers of India for extending the projects to new
respect of India because agroforestry suitability map-
areas. There is huge scope to harness agroforestry in
ping has been done for the first time at country level in
cropland area because the present study highlights the
different agroecological regions. Furthermore, the
high suitability of cropland toward S1 categories equal

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 Agroforest Syst

Table 4 Agroforestry Broad ecosystem of India Total area in km2 Agroforestry suitability percent
suitability in broad
ecosystem of India S1 S2 S3 NS

Arid ecosystem 558,662 2.8 33.5 36.7 26.9

Semiarid ecosystem 1,091,222 31.2 65.8 1.7 1.2
Sub-humid ecosystem 1,096,412 56.4 28.2 10.8 4.6
Humid–perhumid ecosystem 348,324 40.1 33.7 11.5 14.6
Coastal ecosystem 185,381 60.4 20.8 0.6 18.2

Table 5 Agroforestry suitability area (cropland) of various agroecological regions of India

Agroecological region Total Cropland Agroforestry suitability area in
areaa areaa croplanda
S1 S2 S3 NS

1. Western Himalayas (Cold region) 174,162 1000 229 72 28 671

2. Western Plain and Kachchh Peninsula 340,921 183,619 13,679 104,226 65,407 307
3. Deccan Plateau (Hot Arid) 43,579 23,741 474 22,574 391 302
4. Northern Plain and Central Highlands 326,268 278,649 149,106 128,174 1218 151
5. Central Malwa Highlands and Kathiawar Peninsula 172,101 98,225 18,203 77,085 1940 997
6. Deccan Plateau (Hot semiarid region) 262,235 162,941 28,234 131,019 3372 316
7. Deccan (Telengana) Plateau and Eastern Ghats 154,548 86,933 23,798 59,232 3753 150
8. Eastern Ghats (Tamil Nadu Uplands) and Deccan Plateau 176,070 108,255 39,494 67,197 922 642
(Karnataka)
9. Northern Plain 128,675 124,946 92,358 32,588 0 0
10. Central Highlands (Malwas and Budelkhand) 72,351 26,508 8081 18,390 37 0
11. Deccan Plateau and Central Highlands (Budelkhand) 149,129 69,679 34,244 35,435 0 0
12. Eastern Plateau (Chhattisgarh) 140,429 82,571 54,623 27,480 61 407
13. Eastern (Chotanagpur) Plateau and Eastern Ghats 261,243 109,307 82,707 26,334 42 224
14. Eastern Plain 123,791 112,089 97,876 14,213 0 0
15. Western Himalayas 220,793 45,171 13,275 13,711 18,007 178
16. Bengal and Assam plains 141,115 106,850 91,689 14,539 98 524
17. Eastern Himalayas 92,500 3937 1267 1541 1022 107
18. North Eastern Hills (Purvanchal) 114,709 4764 2449 2094 221 0
19. Eastern Coastal Plain 62,811 52,375 38,290 12,262 426 1397
20. Western Ghats and Coastal Plain 122,570 24,039 19,384 4020 17 618
a 2
km

above study will greatly help to boost and throw into
open new agroforestry centers at regional scale, which
is one of the basic objectives of the National Agro-
forestry policy 2014. This research shows the ability of
geospatial technology as well as pooling of various
themes of land, soil, climate, and topographic data,
which can be brought within GIS domain. GIS
modeling software has enormous scope to evaluate
land potentiality in terms of its productivity for certain
specific uses if integrated logically. There is a need to
evaluate the land capacity for India at various levels
(village, district, and state) utilizing the significant
themes/layers/parameters which will greatly help in
the growth of agroforestry crops. This will enable us to
achieve better results and guide the future research.
Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to the USGS,
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO), and the International Institute for Applied Systems

123
Agroforest Syst
Analysis (IIASA), the WorldClim-Global Climate Data, the
European Commission’s science and knowledge service, and
DIVA GIS for allowing free downloads of various datasets used
in the analysis.
Funding No funding in any form has been received by any of
the authors for the current work.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no
competing interests.
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