Conservation of native tree species in the agroforest of rice-based agroecosystems will contribute to sustainable agriculture

Abstract

Traditional agriculture relies on ecosystem services for sustainable food production and is also identified as a climate-smart approach. The present study analyses the agroforests associated with the rice farming system of three different agricultural practices for biodiversity richness by comparing two parameters: plants and birds. Out of the nine study sites, three sites were traditional farms maintained by Kurichiya tribal communities, three were natural farms, and the other three farms were modern. A total of 45 families, 104 genera, 128 species of plants, and 101 bird species belonged to 48 families, and 17 orders were identified from the study sites. The sample-size-based rarefaction and extrapolation (R/E) method was adopted to identify estimated biodiversity indices. Renyi profile was used to understand the native tree diversity profile of the selected sites. The result of this study indicates that bird diversity is positively correlated with native tree diversity and NDVI of May and October. Conserving more native trees in the farmland could be one of the reasons for the sustainable agriculture system of the Kurichiya tribal community as it attracts more bird species and contributes to the biological control of pests. Thus, the conservation of native tree species in the agroforest of rice-based agroecosystems will contribute to the sustainable agriculture system.