Microclimatic Effect of Agroforestry on Air Temperature and Humidity Cycle During Wheat Production
摘要
Climate change is adversity affecting crop productivity around the world especially in the arid to semi-arid areas. In this regard, agroforestry is an alternate land use strategy which can help curtail the negative impacts of climate change and help sustaining crop productivity. In this regard, an open field experiment was conducted in the Forestry nursery area to evidence the impacts of alley cropping agroforestry system vs agriculture system on wheat productivity and various microclimate parameters. Here we report variations in relative humidity and air temperature cycle during the wheat production in agriculture plot (AP) and agroforestry plot (AFP). Results showed that during the first phase, from 18 Nov to 03 Jan 2022, mean ∆Rh and ∆T between AP and AFP were recorded at 2.1% and 0.84 °C, with mean minimum at 0.6% and 0.1 °C, and mean maximum at 4.6% and 1.6 °C, respectively. During the second phase of wheat growth, from 04 Jan 2022 to 24 Jan 2022, mean ∆Rh and ∆T was at 3.1% and 0.58 °C, with mean minimum at 0.6% and 0.2 °C and mean maximum at 4.6% and 1.0 °C, respectively. During the third phase, from 25 Jan 2022 to 27 Mar 2022, the highest difference in mean ∆Rh and ∆T was recorded which was at 7.2% and 2.49 °C, with mean minimum at 1.0% and 0.8 °C, and mean maximum at 13.8% and 3.7 °C, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that agroforestry may help moderating the microclimate due to shade effect of tree canopy in arid to semi-arid areas.