Asian Journal of Research in Agriculture and Forestry

The devastating earthquake on 28 July 2018 in Lombok and the COVID-19 pandemic have put high economic pressure on the community. It is not only the damage to economic infrastructure that stops business activities, but also very strict health protocols, especially social distancing and avoiding crowding that make business activities impossible. Trigona bee farm has been one of the productive activities to support the family economy for the people of North Lombok since decades ago. During the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been running for almost 10 months, the activities of Trigona beekeeping are still running; in fact, the demand has actually increased. This research aims to develop the best strategy to make business scale of Trigona honey and community income increase, using the SAST (Strategic Assumption Surfacing and Testing) method and AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process). The results showed that the demand for trigona honey during the pandemic has actually increased, because this honey has a very complete nutritional content, which can be used to increase immunity against of COVID-19. There are three main problems that were faced by the trigona bee farmers to develop their business: Trigona seeds, cultivation technology, and business management. The best strategy to increase their business and income is cultivation system technology and providing added value.

Agroforestry is one of the most sustainable land management systems practiced around the world due to the socioeconomic benefits to farmers. In Bangladesh, farmers practice agroforestry, applying indigenous knowledge. The objectives of the study are to explore the dominant agroforestry systems and species preferred by and to assess the socio-economic impact of agroforestry technologies on their livelihoods of farmers of the Char dwellers in Jamuna and Teesta river basins. The study was conducted at four Char Upazillas such as Kazipur, Shariakandi, Kaunia and Dimla. A total 120 farmers were surveyed during the research period using structured questionnaire with both open and closed ended questions. The majority of the respondents (56.67%) having low score in adoption of traditional agroforestry practices. Most of the farmers (94.17%) in Teesta and Jamuna river basins are practicing traditional homestead agroforestry system. The most frequent strategy was boundary tree plantation (44.17%) followed by scattered tree plantation technique on composite planting system, and the alley of cropland. A total of 41 tree species are abundant in Char areas of Teesta and Januna basins. Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) is widely adaptable in Bangladesh including Char areas followed by Mango (Mangifera indica) in homestead besides, Mahagony (Swietenia mahagoni) is another abundant species planted in croplands boundaries of Char areas along with Akashmoni (Acacia auriculiformis). The farmers mentioned different problems they were facing in practicing agroforestry but ‘shade cast by trees’ was the major problem. Majority farmers of Char areas plant trees in homestead for fruits (63.33%) and in cropland for fuel wood (95.83%) and timber production (82.50%). Farmers’ livelihoods improved enormously by practicing agroforestry as they have more access to food, fodder and fuel wood which is reflected by greater access to livelihood capitals except social capital. However, the farmers have experienced increased incidences of pests and diseases to annual crops and trees. Agroforestry practices increases species diversity, ensure economic return and sustain farmers’ livelihoods. The respondents, local leaders and experts suggested the constrains of adopting agroforestry in Char areas are lack of awareness, education, technical skills, capital, technical assistance, interest, marketing and transportation facilities at the study areas . The government should initiate some agroforestry focused projects, especially in the Char areas for the capacity building of the farmers and equip them with the new farming techniques through trainings and orientation workshops. The farmers should be provided scientific guidance about suitable tree species grown on agricultural land with field crops, their silvicultural operations and tree management practices along with free services and inputs including seeds, seedlings and loan schemes for promoting agroforestry.

Fuel wood extraction and marketing is one of the off farm activities for rural dwellers around the forest reserve of Oyo State, Nigeria. The assessment of fuel wood extraction on the rural dwellers’ livelihoods was carried out using multi-stage sampling techniques. Purposive sampling was used to select Onigambari Forest Reserve where fuel wood extraction is one of the major off-farm businesses by the rural dwellers. Random sampling was also used to select 50% of the registered fuel wood marketers by Oyo State department of forestry. Structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews waere used to generate data. Data collected were analysed through tables of percentage. Results showed that fuel wood marketing is a profitable business with an average of 54,000 gains per month by the respondents. Fuel wood business has helped the respondents to possess properties such as houses, land for building, farmland and vehicles. Farming activities in the study area have also improved drastically as many of the respondents had farming as their primary occupation and their gains from fuel wood business were re-invested into farmland and haulage vehicles.

In countries where the state is the main owner of the forest resources, forestry activities are carried out with allocated shares from government budget resources. In order to ensure effective and efficient use of financial resources and determine whether forestry goals and targets are achieved, it is necessary to perform financial analysis of public forestry institutions. In Turkey, where the state owns majority of forests, the General Directorate of Forestry (GDF) is the main responsible institution for the management of the forestry sector. This study aimed to make financial statement analysis of working capital budget of the GDF, by applying horizontal analysis, vertical analysis, trend analysis and ratio analysis. In this context, balance sheet and income statement of GDF for the period of 2015-2019 are analyzed. It is determined that in the given period, due to increase in “trade receivables”, “other receivables” and “inventories” accounts, total current assets have shown a positive trend. Also there is a steady increase in the equity, which can be considered as a positive development for the GDF. Gross sales and net sales amount doubled in the given period and, by keeping cost of sales and operating expenses under control, net profit of the GDF showed significant increase especially in last three years. Moreover, ratio analysis results revealed that GDF has capacity to satisfy its current and long-term liabilities and increased its profitability in the mentioned period.

Calophyllum inophyllum is a potential source of non-edible seed oil. Calophyllum oil is used as a biofuel and also for medicinal purposes. At the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore carried out a study in 2019, on five different clones of C. inophyllum  to investigate the effect of clonal variabilty on oil yield and oil physico-chemical properties for use as a biofuel. Oil yield significantly varied among the five clones and ranged from 48.6% to 55.8%. Among the physical properties, except Kinematic Viscosity, Specific Gravity and Refractive Index, the properties such as Flash point, Fire point, Pour point and Cloud point did not vary significantly. However, all the chemical properties studied, such as Acid value, Saponification value, Iodine value and Peroxide value showed apparent variation. From the study it could be derived that clone 15 is more suitable as tree crop for biofuel purpose and the variations among the clones indicate prevalence of scope for tree improvement of C. inophyllum for specific use.