Fodder yield potential of cowpea and mahaneem (Ailanthus excelsa Roxb.) under Agro-Silviculture system in a Semi-Arid Region of India

Abstract

Fodder is basic need of livestock industry but due to climate change, deforestation and increasing human population as a result fodder availability decrease day by day in India as well as worldwide. Therefore, an experiment on intercropping of two popular varieties of cowpea under Mahaneem based agri-silviculture systems with different spatial arrangements was conducted to find out the best combination of intercrop with tree crop to reduce the scarcity of fodder in semi-arid and arid region of Haryana, India. The Mahaneem trees were planted at four different spacing configurations (10 × 20 m, 10 × 10 m, 10 × 6.5 m, and 10 × 5 m