Results and achievements of work package 2
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WP 1 | WP 2 | WP 3 | WP 4 | WP 5 | WP 6
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To better discriminate between existing practices in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh a categorization of areas suitable for biosaline agro forestry was established. Only those areas where agro-forestry is technically possible and financially feasible were considered. The refined categorization describes areas as saline wastelands according to soil, groundwater and economic criteria. In 2009 in several case study areas tree were harvested to record biomass. The photos below show some impressions from the biomass harvest in Lahore (Pakistan).
In total 14 representative case study areas were selected for in-depth studies. Soil and water data (example: ECe, pH, major anions and cations), growth data (example: plant height, diameter at breast height, canopy radius) and biomass data (dry weight, fresh weight and wood properties) were recored in the first two project years.
A categorization according to 8 different types of land suitable for biosaline agro forestry was established and a range of soil and water parameters defined for identification. The table below provides an overview on the different categories and parameters. With this new categorization the largest parts of the salinity and sodicity affected soils in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are described and especially these areas highlighted, which have a huge potential for bio saline agroforesty.
The surveyed data sets from the case study areas were reported to ICBA in a standardized format. For each single plantation, water, climate and growth data were put together to a single database, which also allows the use of these data in GIS systems and in higher work packages. With selective queries climate, soil, water and growth parameter can now be linked to certain trees (genus and species).
During the meeting in April 2010 in Delhi preliminary results of WP 2 were presented to the BIOSAFOR consortium and a wider audience including the Indian Ministry of Agriculture and the European Union, Delegation to India.
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