Growth, Productivity and Profitability of Tomato in Aonla Based Multistoried Agroforestry System

Abstract

Exploration of fruit tree-vegetable-based agroforestry systems is pivotal for combating climate change, meeting nutritional demands, ensuring food security, and improving economic profitability. From December 2020 to April 2021, an experiment was carried out in a 21-year-old aonla orchard at Gazipur Agricultural University (GAU) to assess tomato yield attributes and yield together with the economic return from winter vegetables within an aonla-based agroforestry system. A Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used with four replications. The treatments comprised four system combinations: T1: Aonla + Carambola + Lemon + Dragon fruit + Tomato; T2: Aonla + Dragon fruit + Tomato; T3: Dragon fruit + Tomato; and T4: Tomato in the open field (Control). T1 produced comparatively better vegetative growth and LER, whereas T4 recorded the highest SPAD value. The number of leaflets plant-1, fruit length, fruit diameter, total number of fruits plant-1, total fruit weight plant-1, individual fruit weight, and yield were highest in T4. Overall, the findings showed that tomato production within the multistoried agroforestry arrangement was profitable, indicating that the aonla-based multistoried system could serve as a model for raising total production, using land more intensively, and generating high income.