Insights on Popularizing Fruit-based Cropping System: An Alternate for Better Livelihood in Salt-affected Indian Sundarbans Deltas (ISDs)

The Indian Sundarbans Delta (ISD) is part of the delta of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) basin inAsia. Typically, in the delta region rain-fed, single-crop agriculture and fishing are the two main sourcesof livelihood. The dominant crop grown in this area is the local transplanted Aman rice crop with lowyields and some short-duration vegetables. High soil and water salinity, impact of climatic changes, andfrequent occurrence of natural calamities aggravate the situation making agricultural crop cultivationchallenging in ISD. Fruit plant-based cropping systems may be considered in ISD as one of the effectivealternative cropping options that combat problems of soil and climatic factors with minimum loss andgive more than one option to generate income besides their plenty of ecological and other benefits. Todate, commendable research work in this area is lacking particularly in ISD which is gifted with wider cropdiversity where many important and minor fruit crops are adapted to saline and sodic conditions alongwith indigenous mangrove plants that bear fruit with immense ethnobotanical uses. Upon realizing thiscontext, the present review was framed taking help from an extensive groundwork of different researchersworking on possibilities, difficulties, and advanced strategies for the successful establishment of fruit-basedcropping systems in different saline tracts.