Sloping hills ravaged by shifting cultivation often causes soil erosion problems in the downstream cultivated lands. This study was carried out in the highland zone of Eastern India to evaluate selected horti-silvi-pastoral systems in terms of soil carbon build up, soil aggregation and soil moisture retention in a degraded sloping land. The experiment was taken up during 2000-2006 in a degraded hillock of about 4.0 ha area with eight treatments involving two fruit species (cashew and guava), two grass species ( Stylosanthes hamata and natural grass) and two in situ (trench or no-trench) moisture conservation measures. Hedge rows of Indigofera teysmanni (silviculture component) were used uniformly for all the treatments. Trenches of 0.45 m * 0.45 m * 1.0 m dimension at 0.5 m u/s side of fruit plants conserved 2.18 g 100 g -1 higher soil moisture on an average in the 0-30 cm layer. The effect of fruit tree component was visible during 6th year of study in terms of soil organic carbon (SOC) only. In 6 years, the average increase in SOC and water stable aggregates in the 0-30 cm profile was 89% and 46% under rehabilitation treatments. The SOC stock at the end of 6 years was 34-40 Mg ha -1 in the 0-30 cm profile under treatments as compared to 21 Mg ha -1 under control. The SOC build up rate increased linearly with time and the average rates were 4.5, 3.5 and 0.64 Mg ha -1 yr -1 for Stylosanthes and natural grass based treatments and control, respectively. In all the systems, macroaggregates (>250 m) were higher in proportion and contained higher organic carbon. Guava+Stylosanthes+Trench system proved better in terms of soil carbon build up, soil aggregation and soil moisture retention.
