In recent past agroforestry systems have been recognized as sustainable land use system over conventional agriculture. However, the major obstacle in up scaling of this tree based land use systems is the difficulty in quantification and demonstration of the ecological and economical sustainability as compared to agriculture. Nevertheless, energy analysis is being widely used at global, national and regional scale to assess the sustainability of system production as it evaluates the system components on common units and also helps to understand the resource use and production efficiency of tree based farming system. Therefore, the present investigation was undertaken to assess the economics and energy use efficiency of different neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) and teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) based agroforestry systems in rainfed and irrigated ecosystems respectively in north-eastern dry zone of Karnataka, India. The economic analysis of neem based agroforestry systems under rainfed condition revealed higher net returns and B:C ratio with crop alone (control) (515 $ ha−1 year−1, 2.00 respectively) over different agroforestry systems. While, in teak based agroforestry systems under irrigated ecosystem higher B:C ratio were recorded (4.07 to 5.71) over control (2.87). However, energy analysis revealed that both neem (3.99 to 4.15) and teak based agroforestry systems (4.48 to 7.74) were energetically superior to control (3.32 and 4.21 respectively). Energy analysis appeared to be the most appropriate method to assess the agroforestry systems rather than economics or life cycle assessment though intangible benefits of tree based land use system are not considered in the former. Therefore, integrated approach involving both ecological and economical assessment is suggested to quantify the sustainability and productivity across types of system and ecological situations.

中文翻译：

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半干旱热带地区对比生态系统下传统农林业系统的经济和能源潜力

最近，农林业系统被认为是比传统农业更可持续的土地利用系统。然而，与农业相比，这种基于树木的土地利用系统扩大规模的主要障碍是难以量化和论证生态和经济可持续性。尽管如此，能源分析在全球、国家和区域范围内被广泛用于评估系统生产的可持续性，因为它评估了公共单元上的系统组件，还有助于了解基于树木的耕作系统的资源使用和生产效率。因此，本调查旨在评估不同印楝 (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) 和柚木 (Tectona grandis Lf ) 分别位于印度卡纳塔克邦东北部干旱区的雨养和灌溉生态系统中的农林业系统。雨养条件下基于印楝的农林复合系统的经济分析显示，与不同的农林复合系统相比，单独使用作物（对照）（分别为 515 $ ha-1 年-1，2.00）的净回报和 B:C 比率更高。同时，在灌溉生态系统下的柚木农林业系统中，记录的 B:C 比（4.07 至 5.71）高于对照（2.87）。然而，能量分析显示印楝（3.99 至 4.15）和柚木混农林业系统（4.48 至 7.74）在能量上均优于对照（分别为 3.32 和 4.21）。能源分析似乎是评估农林业系统的最合适方法，而不是经济或生命周期评估，尽管前者没有考虑基于树木的土地利用系统的无形收益。因此，建议采用生态和经济评估的综合方法来量化不同类型系统和生态状况的可持续性和生产力。