CURRENT STATUS OF TERMINALS ARJUNA AND ALBIZIA LEBBECK IN AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS OF SOUTHERN PUNJAB,PAKISTAN

摘要

Pakistan comprises of lowest forest resources and its southern region is facing the worst deforest conditions.Farm forests are providing 90 fuel-wood and 76 timber wood of the country’s demand but the forest cover area is declining day by day.Therefore,it is the need of time to promote agroforestry on private lands to meet the requirements of the community for tangible and intangible purposes.The objective of this study was to identify the uses and benefits of less familiar tree species such as Termi-nalia arjuna and Albizia lebbeck by visiting timber merchants,farmers,nursery owners and traditional healers locally known as Hakims.Data were collected from 11 different localities of the Multan division of Southern Punjab.The results indicated that both species were preferred by the grower for specific uses: A.lebbeck is preferably grown on agricultural lands due to more market value,fuelwood and fodder demand,but T.arjuna was found to be important for hakims and was reported as more important medicinal plant than A.lebbeck.An important source of information in the study area about tree cultivation was the neighbor farmers (42.2) and major problems were lack oftechnical assistance (28.7) and less availability of seedlings (22).To overcome the pressure of wood production by some specific tree species,the government should focus on the planting of T.arjuna and other fast-growing trees.Moreover,the Government should also give incentives,financial subsidies,and market assistance to the farmers to promote the cultivation of less familiar fast-growing trees in conventional farming systems.