STUDY ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A SIMPLE PROCESSBASED MODEL ON TEA AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to develop a basic event-based process model to represent the biological process of tea agroforestry systems and their environmental effects. This model was incorporated into a tea garden including tea and shade trees, which involves competition for energy, water, and nutrients and considered the spacing, thinning, pruning, and fertilizing as factors of production. The study area for tea and shaded tree plots was selected on Ratandighi Union, Panchagarh district, Bangladesh and the study was conducted, from 2018 to 2020. The study period was divided into six quarterly events, such as event-1 (March 2018-June 2018), event-2 (July 2018-October 2018), event-3 (November 2018-February 2019), event-4 (March 2019-June 2019), event-5 (July 2019-October 2019) and event-6 (November 2019-February 2020). The weather data were obtained from the AccuWeather site from March 2018 to February 2020. The findings of this study show that the highest mean temperature was 30.27°C in the unshaded site, but the temperature was 27.52°C in the shaded side from March to June. The coldest month was January in the studied area with a temperature of 19.45°C in the open site and 19.19°C in the shaded site. The variations of temperature had a significant impact on tree wood production. Nevertheless, the trend of tree LAI is consistent, and the stem volume of shade trees grows significantly from event-1 to event6 (March 2018 to February 2020). On the other hand, higher rainfall indicates an increase in the volume of tea production. However, the tea production was constant from event-1 to event-3 (March 2018 to February2019) due to the growth stage, and the production level increases after event-3 at the maturity stage. The findings of this study might be helpful to the policymaker and academic researcher for getting the more productive tea agroforestry system in Bangladesh.