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Forest degradation and deforestation are serious threats to resource conservation, subsistence livelihoods and rural income diversification. Woodlot farming on farms has been established as a potential option to increase forest resources from agricultural landscapes and remove human pressure from forests. The study investigated the land-use and landholding pattern, woodlots types and species preference and extent of spatial distribution, land allocation and growing stock of woodlots in the Ganderbal district of Kashmir. Multistage random sampling technique was employed to select 349 farm woodlots from 12 sample villages. Secondary sources were used to collect village-level data on land-use and landholding pattern. Primary data concerning the trees were collected through farm woodlot inventories. The data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Results revealed that the total land area in the sample villages is 888.60 ha; 521.60 ha (58.70%) is cultivated land, which is mostly (80.78%) occupied by 1244 marginal farmers. The prevalent woodlots established were plantations of Populus, Salix, Robinia or mixed species. The farm woodlots (61.59 ha) contributed 11.81% of cultivated land and 6.93% of the total geographical area. The average growing stocks of woodlots were estimated to be 204.05 m3/ha for Populus, 191.77 m3/ha for Salix, 109.51 m3/ha for Robinia and 62.31 m3/ha for Mixed. The findings suggested that woodlot farming is the key alternative for forest resource production, livelihood resilience and socioeconomic improvement; hence, the policy must be implicated towards the promotion of woodlot farming by re-orienting the land use through farmer's motivation and technical, financial and farming input assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment was conducted to identify promising accessions suited for cultivation under cold arid conditions of Leh, Ladakh. Twenty two accessions of French bean were screened for resistance to angular leaf spot disease during the spring seasons of 2016 and 2017 in the Experimental field of High Mountain Arid Agriculture Research Institute (HMAARI) Leh, Ladakh, Sheri Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir. The study revealed that under natural epiphytotic conditions none of the accessions was resistant in reaction. Eight accessions viz., Acc-WB22, Acc-1643, Acc-1690, Acc-811, Acc-564, WB-1247, WB-185 and Acc-252 were moderately susceptible. All other fourteen accessions viz., Acc-966, Acc-335, Acc-1129, Acc-21529, Acc- WB216, Acc-719, WB-956, Acc-622, Acc-1492, Acc-195, Anupama, WB-6, WB-257 and Local exhibited susceptible reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clonal trial of 100 CPT's of Salix alba was laid out in common garden experiment at Faculty of Forestry nursery, SKUAST-K. Wide variation was recorded for all the CPT's of Salix alba with respect to various morphometric (growth, biomass and leaf) characters. Maximum values of growth, biomass and leaf characters were registered by CPT-26, CPT-53, CPT-56, CPT-75, CPT-37 and CPT-45. Genetic parameters estimated for the clonal material revealed fair differences between PCV and GCV. High heritability was registered by all the characters with maximum (0.982) for shoot height which was followed by high to moderate genetic gain indicating additive gene action. Correlation coefficient analysis revealed strong and positive association between most of the growth, biomass and leaf traits with maximum genotypic (0.874) and phenotypic (0.849) correlation between collar diameter and volume index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Propagation of Himalayan maple (Acer caesium Wall.) through seed and softwood cuttings was investigated to standardize nursery techniques for mass production of the species. The seedlings were raised from viable seeds in different containers filled with different combinations of growing media. Vegetative propagation of softwood cuttings was carried out by treating with different combinations of IBA and Willow leachate of different durations. The statistical analysis revealed the differential behaviour of various nursery stocks with respect to survival, growth and biomass. The growing media soil:sand:vermicompost (2:1:2) and container (root trainer 300 cc) showed maximum germination (61.00%), seedlings height (35.17 cm), collar diameter (5.07 cm), shoot:root ratio (1.24) and survival percentage (76.33%). Conversely, the cuttings treated with IBA @ 8000 ppm showed maximum sprouting (74.50%), rooting (66.75%), length of longest root (14.65 cm), no. of roots per cutting (33.00%), shoot length (13.90 cm) and survival percentage (41.50%). Hence, the seeds of the species should be grown in Rot trainer of 300 cc having soil:sand:vermicompost (2:1:2) to get good quality planting materials. However, the softwood cuttings should be given treatments with IBA @ 8000 ppm for mass production of plants vegetatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment was carried at Precision Farming Development Centre, Leh, SKUAST-K during the winter season of year 2016-17 to determine the growth and yield of knolkhol as influenced by different dates of transplanting and varieties under Chinese type polyhouse. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three transplanting date viz., 15th October, 25th October and 5th November and four varieties viz., King of market (V1), Purple Vienna (V2), White Vienna (V3) and G-40 (V4). The results revealed that maximum yield and its attributing traits was found best in 15th October planting. Among the varieties king of market and G-40 performed better as compared to other varieties during winter season in polyhouse condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic carbon accounting model CO2FIX was used for evaluating carbon stocks and estimate greenhouse gas mitigation through tree-based systems, outside the forest area, in Kupwara district of Kashmir valley India. Primary survey results revealed that on an average, there were about 135 trees per hectare, existing on farmers' field. Malus (33.75%), populus (29.91%), salix (14.32%), juglans (6.68%) and robinia (4.7%) were dominant tree species. Paddy and maize are the dominant kharif crops, whereas rabi season is dominated by oilseeds and fodder crops. The carbon sequestration potential, all the three pools simultaneously (viz. tree, crop and soil), of existing agroforestry systems (AFS) has been predicted as 0.88 Mg C ha-1 yr-1. AFS at district level are estimated to sequester 146,996 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually, which may offset completely the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture/irrigation sector on account of electricity consumption throughout the state of Jammu and Kashmir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]