Socio-Economic impacts of agro-forestry on livelihoods of rural households in southern region of the Punjab, Pakistan

Agro-forestry is practiced in many of the developing countries including Pakistan. In order to find out its socio-economic impacts on the livelihoods of rural household in the Southern Punjab, the present study was carried out in 2016 at University College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha. Data were collected from randomly selected 160 rural heads of households using interview schedule. Majority (76.2%) of the respondents were young (26 to 40 years). A significant majority (76.3%) were illiterate and only 23.8% were literate (Having more than five years of schooling). Farming was the major income source for majority (69.4%) of respondents. Small farming is very common as more than 60.0% of the respondents had only up to 5 acres of land. Majority (65.6%) were perceived as poor (having monthly income > 7000 PKR). Regarding impact of agro forestry on rural household food security "good source of fuel wood" ranked first (mean=2.95). Small land holding was one of the major constraints (mean=2.62). Decrease in soil loss was the main advantage of agro-forestry as perceived by majority of respondents. There was highly significant relationship between educational status, income source and size of land holding and perceived poverty. It was very much easy to predict the poverty status (dependent variable) of respondents through their physical, financial and human assets/capitals (independent variables).