CHAPTER THREE: LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Definition of Home garden:
Homegardens are one of the most elaborate systems of indigenous agroforestry, found most often in tropical and sub–tropical areas where subsistence land use systems predominate (FAO, 1986). Browrigg (1985) defined the term as “a supplementary food production system by and for members of a group people with rights to the land, who eat meals together regularly”. Fernandes and Nair (1986), defined the term as “land use practices involving deliberate management of multipurpose trees and shrubs in intimate association with annual and perennial agricultural crops and, invariably, livestock, within the compounds of individual houses, the whole crop-tree-animal unit being intensively managed by family labour”
Homegardening has a long tradition in many tropical countries. Tropical home gardens consist of an assemblage of plants, which may include trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous plants, growing in or adjacent to a homestead or home compound. These gardens are planted and maintained by members of the household and their products are intended primarily for household consumption; the gardens also have considerable ornamental value, and they provide shade to people and animcccccals. The word "home garden" has been used rather loosely to describe diverse practices, from growing vegetables behind houses to complex multistoried systems. It is used here to refer to intimate association of multipurpose trees and shrubs with annual and perennial crops and, invariably livestock within the compounds of individual houses, with the whole crop-tree-animal unit being managed by family labor (Fernandes and Nair, 1986).
Homegardens are one of the most elaborate systems of indigenous agroforestry, found most often in tropical and subtropical area where subsistence land use systems predominant (FAO, 1986). Home garden can be defined as the land surrounding a house, on which a mixture of annual and perennial plants are grown together with/without animals largely managed by the household members for own use or commercial purposes. Brownrigg (1986) defined the term as “a supplementary food production system by and for members of group of people with rights to the land, who eat meals together regularly.”
3.2 Homegarden: World Context
Homegardens are an ancient and wide spread agroforestry system. While the focus on the system as a development strategy is relatively recent, its existence as a traditional land-use practice spans centuries, even millennia in some cases (Lai 1989). According to Hutterer (1984), the system may have developed in prehistoric times when hunters and gatherers deliberately or accidentally dispersed seeds of highly valued fruit trees in the vicinity of their camp sites. Brownrigg (1985) in his literature review (cited in Soemarwoto 1987) mentioned that home gardens in the Near Eastern Region were documented in paintings, papyrus illustration and texts dating to the third millennium BC. The systems have survived throughout centuries as the result of long term adaptation of cultivated plants and cultural techniques to local ecological conditions and they have in many cases reached a noticeable degree of harmonization with the natural environment (Michon 1983). Farmers who practice the systems are guide, perhaps in the absence of a unified set of expert recommendations, by their own perceptions and convictions about species selection, admixture and management, so that each farm unit is a specialized entity in itself (Fernandes and Nair, 1986).
Homegardens are fundamental to peasant’s lives, because they are not only units of production but are also part of the habitation unit of the peasant family (Buylla Roces et. al., 1989). Although there are many variations in home garden design and pattern, the basic features remain the same (Christanty, 1984). A home garden usually contains a house, a bare space and a cultivated space. Usually the cultivated space (the garde) is located surrounding the house, in front of the house as front yards or behind the house as back yard. The bare space is used for various social and ceremonial activities. Intensive uses of cultivated space, the multiple functions of farmyard plantings, predominance of root, tuber and tree crops are some of the characteristic traits of traditional home gardens in many parts of the world (Ninez, 1987). The gardens often feature low capital input and simple technology and are intensively managed by family labour. Yields are generally low but stable and sustainable (Fernandes and Nair, 1986). Personal preferences and attitudes, socio-economic status and culture often reflect the appearance, structure and function of the home gardens (Christanty, 1984).
Numeraous terms have been used by various authors to denote these practices. These include, for example, mixed garden horticulture (Terra, 1954), mixed gardener house garden (Atoler, 1979), home garden (Ramsay and Wiresum, 1976, Millat-e-Mustafa et, al. 1996), Javanese home garden (Soemarwoto et. al. 1987), kitchen garden (Brierley, 1985), household garden (Vasey, 1985), tropical mixed garden (Price, 1982), quintal (Posey, 1985), calmil (Palerm, 1967), pekarangan (Soemarwoto et. al. 1985), kandyan garden (Jacob and Alleys, 1987), and homestead agroforestry (Leuschner and Khaleque,1987).
Homegardens are often ignored by scientist and development agents as an important part of traditional farming systems largely because of their small size and apparent insignificance a (Bunderson et. al., 1990). They are often looked at as an example of primitive, underdeveloped agriculture compared to modern high-yielding technological agrosystems (Michon et. al. 1983). Many studies have reported the existence of home gardens in various regions of the world, but very few studies have adequately analyzed the structure, species composition, diversity, and the management aspects of the home gardens (Millat-e-Mustafa et. al. 1996).
Home gardens are a highly efficient form of land use, incorporating a variety of crops with different growth habits. Almost every author who describes a home garden of a particular country gives a list of the important species found in the garden. There are a variety of methods in cataloguing plant species. Some authors take individual gardens. For example, Mergen (1987) reported 191 species in one garden found in Java (the upper limit for number of species in one garden found in the literature). Other authors look at a village as a whole. For example in Java, Michon (1983) enumerated 500 species in a village.
3.3 Homegarden: Asian Context
In Asia, the homegarden system is common in Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and India (Landauer and Brazil, 1990). Often referred to by different names, these gardens benefit family nutrition, increase household income, provide a buffer to food insecurity during lean season (agriculture off-season), provide habitat protection and soil conservation (Marsh 1996, Landauer and Brazil 1990). In Vietnam, a more integrated home production system is common where small animals; gardens and rice production are combined.
Although no quantitative information regarding species composition in the home gardens is available in the literature, the studies of Barrau (1961) in the Pacific, McConnell and Dharmapala (1973) in Srilanka, Sommers (1978) in Philippines, Michon et. al. (1986) in Java, Boonkird et. al. (1984) in Thailand have acknowledged the predominance of fruit and food producing species in the home gardens of the respective countries.
Kumar et. al. (1994) reported diversity index of 1.129 to 3.016 in different parts of Kerala, India. They concluded that the species diversity of the small gardens was significantly greater than the medium and large holdings. Christaanty (1985) found a diversity index of 2.79 for Javanese home gardens and 3.71 for Sudanese home gardens. Kumar et al. (1994) noted equitability index of 0.542 for small, 0.368 for medium and 0.428 for large holdings of the Kerala home gardens.
Within Kandy home gardens of Sri lanka, Jacob and Alles, (1987) and Nanayakkara (1990) failed to find any spatial pattern of species distribution. Similar observation is also made by Tuladhar (1990) for the home gardens of Nepal and Kumar et al. (1994) for the Kerala Home gardens of India.
In home garden, the vertical stratification of vegetation has been long recognized as one of its characteristic features, though the variation of the height within any one stratum has led to some arguments as to the distinctness of the various strata recognized by various authors. Barrau (1961), Michon (1983), Altieri and Farrell (1984), Fernandes et al. (1984), Okafor and Fernandes (1987) and Aluma (1990) from various geographical regions give schematic presentations of vertical structure and observe that the canopies of most home gardens consist of 2-5 layers. Fernandes and Nair (1986) provide a useful general summary of layers:
<1m>
1-3m Food plants e.g. cassava, banana, papaya, yams
3-5m Saplings of fruit/timber trees all growing taller
5-10m Fruit/timber trees, some growing taller
>10m Fruit/timber trees.
The management of the traditional home garden systems has evolved as a response to many factors, cultural, economic, and environmental as well as personal preferences (Southern, 1994). The farmers have been using indigenous methods of management of home gardens from time immemorial. They did and are doing these experiments on ‘Trial and error’ basis. Many authors acknowledged the management skills of farmers in dealing with the complex home gardens that they acquired empirically over generations. For example Michon et. al. (1993) claimed that Javanese farmers have such a thorough knowledge of ecology that they can often choose the correct niche for each plant depending on the gradient of light and humidity and this seems to correspond to its ecological niche in the natural forest.
In case of management of homesteads the farmers often apply their indigenous knowledge. Removal and/or partly uprooting of undesirable species from the home gardens through weeding are a common cultural practice reported by Sollart (1986) and Bompard et al. (1980) from Javanese home gardens. The practice of farmers in west Java of partly uprooting weeds under trees and leaving them to decompose illustrates how weeding is an integral part of skillful management of traditional systems: the soil is covered, nutrients recycled and unnecessary work avoided (Bompard et al.1980). Weeding may follow a schedule or be done from time to time as required. Sollart (1986) mentions that the farmers of Javanese home gardens weed when time is available but they do it at least once every (two) month(s).
Pruning is another cultural operation practiced by the farmers for various reasons. Bully Roses et. al. (1989) mention that in Mexico, the farmers prune trees to increase fruit production, to facilitate harvesting of fruits, to avoid conflicts with the neighbors due to excessive lateral growth of plants and to prolong the life spans of some shrubs and herbs. The farmers of Jessore district of Bangladesh prune their home garden plants mainly for four reasons which in accordance of preference are: to get more fruits, to get more quality fruits, to get fuel wood and to ensure more space for sunlight (Alam et. al. 1990).
3.4 Homegarden: Bangladesh Context
Homegardens in Bangladesh are a particularly appropriate form of agroforestry, being operational units for subsistence in which different crops including trees are grown in mixture with livestock. Fish culture is also quite common in the Home gardens. Most of the plants grown in Home gardens have multiple uses. Eight major uses of the Home garden plants are recorded by Millat-e-Mustafa et. al. (1996): fruit/food, timber, fuel wood, spice, fodder, medicine, fencing and miscellaneous. The miscellaneous uses include brooms, handicrafts, shade, ornamental, ceremonial, environmental and aesthetic.
Generally Homegardens are rectangular in shape. They are usually built on mounds to raise dwellings above the water level during annual flood (Leuschner and Khaleque, 1987). The extra earth for raising these mounds is generally obtained by digging ponds within the home garden. The home garden is usually fenced by trees or shrubs. A typical Home garden serves several houses of related families in a cluster, and has space for vegetable gardens and yard for threshing ground and communal activities, cattle shed, ponds, trees, shrubs and bamboo (Khaleque, 1987). The most frequently used plants are generally grown in the back yard, at the pond side and around the cow shed areas for the provision of fruit/food, fuel wood, timber and fodder both for domestic use as well as for cash.
Homegardens are more reliable from the physical and socio-economic points of view than crop fields for growing trees and agricultural crops, and are important sources of income for the farmers of Bangladesh. The farmers sell cropland to fight against pauperization but retain the Home garden unless absolutely unavoidable. Even functionally landless farmers have their own home gardens where they grow the essential commodities for subsistence (Abedin and Quddus, 1990). Davidson (1984) observed that over half of the fruits, vegetables and spices grown in the Home gardens are sold to meet family expenses. Income from Home gardens ranges from 26 percent to 47 percent of the total family expenses. During the last 40-50 years, the relative importance has shifted from the traditional forestry (government forests) to Home gardens in such a way that today about 80 percent of requirement of timber, fuel wood and bamboo are met from the Home garden source (Abedin et. al., 1990). Farmers intensively manage this system for their subsistence using their own resources of land, labour and know-how.
3.4.1 An introduction to the homegardens in Bangladesh
Homegarden is an important component of rural economy of Bangladesh. A home garden commonly connotes “ an operational unit in which a number of crops including trees are grown with livestock, poultry and fish production, mainly for the purposes of satisfying the farmers basic needs” (Leuchner and Khaleque, 1987). Farmers intensively manage this system for their subsistence using their own resources of land, labor and know-how.
Home gardens are well established traditional land use systems. For Bangladesh, Dalmacio (1989) points that home gardens are a particularly appropriate form of agroforestry, being operational units for subsistence in which different crops including trees are grown in mixture with livestock. Fish culture is also common in the home gardens. Most of the home gardens are rectangular in shape. They are usually built on mounds to raise dwellings above the water level during annual flood (Leuschner and Khaleque, 1987).The extra earth for raising these mounds is generally obtained by digging ponds within the home garden. The home garden is usually fence by trees or shrubs. A typical home garden serves several houses of related families in a cluster, and has space for vegetable gardens and yard for threshing ground and communal activities, cattle shed, pond, trees, shrubs and bamboo (Khaleque, 1987). The most frequently use plants are generally grown in the back yard, at the pond side and around the cow shed areas for the provision of fruit or food, fuel wood, timber and fodder both for domestic use as well as for cash.
Homegardens are more reliable from the physical and socio-economic point of view than crop fields for growing trees and agricultural crops, and are important source of income for the framers of Bangladesh. The desperately poor farmers are often forced to sell crop land to fight against pauperization, but they tent to retain the home garden unless absolutely unavoidable. Even functionally landless farmers have their own home gardens where they grow the essential commodities for subsistence (Abedin and Quddus, 1990).Davidson (1984) observed that over half of the fruits, vegetables and spices grown in the home gardens are sold to meet family expenses. Income from home gardens ranges from 26% to 47% of the total family expenses. It is estimated that the average rate of increment of home gardens in 5 m3per ha per annum, which is more than double that of the government forests (Forestry Master Plan, 1993). During the last 40-50 years, the relative importance has shifted from the traditional forestry (government forest) to home gardens in such a way that today about 70% timber, 80% fuel wood and 90% bamboo are met from the home garden source (Hammermaster, 1981). After all definition or comments, according to me there have a chance to define the definition of home garden by another way. Usually the cultivated space is located surrounding the house as well as sometimes it is said that the products of home garden are only supplementary production. But my study area (jafflong) is not similar with this definition. Because their cultivated areas are not located surrounding the area. Their cultivated areas are located a far away from their house. And their main source of income is come from the production of home garden. A very few species are found surrounding their house. These species are not so important for them in view of their income source. They do not depend on these productions. These species can be referred as a consumed product. Unconsciously they are benefited from these productions. The cultivated areas which are far away from their house are only land where they do cultivation. These areas are used for commercial purpose. The productions that are obtained from those cultivated land, are the only one income source of households. They sell these products to the market. A very little product is consumed by them. The owners of lands in my study area are not the farmers. The farmers hold the land by lease from the Raja of that area. They are only owner of their dwelling area that is not too much large in size but sufficient for them. So in home garden, the cultivated area may be situated either surrounding the house or a far away from house. By conjoining both structure (i.e. surrounding the house & far away from house), the home garden can be defined.
3.5 Management of Homegarden:
The management of homegarden requires low labor input as have been reported by several authors from different countries e.g. half hour to two hours daily in a 500 m2 home gardens of Philippine (Sommer1978). Similar range is reported in Indonesia (Haryadi 1975, cited in Christanty 1985); 50 minute per day in a200 m2 home garden in Lima (Ninez, 1985); 35-45 days of family labor per year during the year of home gardens establishment and 17-22 days during subsequent years in Mexico (Buylla Roces et. al. 1989).
3.5.1 Gender
There is a clear share of tasks between women and men for the management of home gardens (e.g.Stoler1978, Ahmed et. al. 1980, Hossain et. al.1988). According to Stoler (1978), home garden cultivation occupies only 8% of the total working time of men and an insignificant amount of time for women, but Ahmed et. al. (1980) found that most women spent 9.4 % of their productive activities for working in the home garden while men spent only 2.3 % of their productive activities in west Java. Hossain et. al. (1988) reported that in Bangladesh, women are mostly involved in the pre and post harvest work of vegetable production while men play key role in timbre and fruit tree growing activities.
3.5.2 Prospects
One of the most striking features of homegardens , observed on all three continents s that , due to great diversity of species and their varied biological cycles , having the effect of staggering production of food crops , small daily harvests can be made year round for immediate home consumption . The multipurpose tree crops can provide shade, living fences, fodder and mulch, fuelwood, fruit, timber and poles. Other components provide food both for home consumption and sale if a surplus remains, protection against pests, cash crops, medicines, spices, mushrooms, fibres for ropes and mats and even simply ornament.
Tropical homegardens have remained sustainable through the ability of farmers to adopt to new circumstances, species being altered without affecting the overall structure and productivity. But now a day with the increasing pressure to include cash crops in gardens there is doubt whether the system is sufficiently flexible to accommodate these changes (Forrester, 1992). One of the most useful accounts of change is Soemarwotos article (1987) where his stated objective is not only to describe the system but also to examine its potential for future development. He mentions current improvements but then lists a range of threats resulting to the gardens. These threats are nearly all connected with loss of species diversity. He warns against concentrating only on the tangible economic and nutritional aspects at the expense of intangible ecological and social values. As a result versatility is limited, genetic erosion sets in, losses to pests and diseases increase and soil erosion becomes a problem exacerbated by a decline in mulching in response to the availability of chemical fertilizers. Wiersum (1982) emphasizes the rapid changes occurring now a day which the previously flexible systems are failing to assimilate. A major threat is from the pressure of population and modern agriculture. Increases in population have led to diminishing crop diversity as farmers struggle to grow enough staple food crops, though they know diversity confers more advantages. At the same time agricultural development workers, often backed by the government or NGOs, are imposing their single component approach on many farmers and pressurizing them to change over to mono-cropping.
Most authors, however, see a promising future of home gardens, with reservations. On the evidence from natural forests and home gardens through history, it does seem likely that diversity contributes to sustainability, therefore, while research is required to establish this more precisely, more urgent research is necessary into increasing production while maintaining diversity and long term sustainability, perhaps in part by rehabilitating the traditional knowledge underlying the success of gardens up to now (Michon et. al. 1983). Ninez (1987 )holds that home gardens represent one of the last frontiers for increasing food production, and urges “ let the persistence of families all over the globe in growing their own food speak for itself “
3.6 Research on Home gardens in Bangladesh: present status and priorities for the new millennium.
Introduction:
It has recently been unequivocally established that rural home gardens in Bangladesh represent the most dominant source of forest products supply in the country and offer last rays of hope in the otherwise dismal scenario of the forestry sector (see FMP. 1993; Khan, 1998; Millat-e-Mustafa et. al. 1999). The country’s premier forestry plan document, the Forestry master plan 1993-2012 (FMP), for example, observes:
Some 10 million households, in over 85,650 villages annually supply about 5 million m3 of wood and 0.53 million air dry MT of bamboo. Supported by tradition and conventional wisdom, these homesteads grow trees and other crops under an intensive and efficient system of agroforestry, combining multipurpose trees, food and forage plants, bamboo palms, medicinal plants and spices. These homestead forests support mixed subsistence cash crop household economy. Today homestead forests are the most important source of wood, bamboo and other non-wood forest products in the country (1993:77).
Rural homegardens ,as one popularly cited source reveals, account for 48% of the total supply of saw and veneer logs, 70% of fuelwood and bamboo in Bangladesh (ADB, 1993:77) . Notwithstanding their central importance and contribution to the rural socio economy, home gardens have received in adequate attention especially in respect of research and extension. Siddiqui and Khan (forth coming), echoing a number of recent studies, rightly note that “(home garden), albeit their paramount importance remains a rather ignored area of study and research on home gardens is still in its nascent stage.” In this context, this article sheds light on the present state of academic research on home gardens in Bangladesh, together with research priorities for meeting the challenges of the new millennium. After this introduction, the second section presents a brief overview of the forestry situation in Bangladesh, while the third section offers an introductory background of the Bangladeshi home gardens. In the subsequent section, a profile of the current literature on home garden in Bangladesh is presented and a number of priority areas for further research, in context of the new millennium, are furnished.
3.7 The present status of homegarden research in Bangladesh
The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has taken the lead in recognizing the importance of homegardens in Bangladesh and has under taken exploratory surveys through its On-Farm Research Division in different Farming Systems Research (FSR) site. Under the auspices of BARI, Alam et. al. (1990) conducted a survey on homestead trees and household fuel uses in around the Farming Systems Research sites of Jessore and Mymensingh Districts. The objective of this research were to identify what was planted at the homesteads and how the species were used, types of fuel used at homestead level and the constraints of homesteads production. Similar surveys were also conducted by Akhtar et. al. (1989), also for BARI, Damurhuda Thana (sub-district) of Chuadanga District, Momin et. al. (1990) at the flood plain Tangail District, Kar et. al (1990) in the Barind Tract of Rajshahi District, Khan et. al (1990) in Jamalpur and Patuakhali, Dasgupta et. al (1990) in Kishorganj District, Islam et. al (1990) in the high lands of Tista flood plain areas (Dinajpur and Rangpur) and Islam and Ahmed (1987) in Pabna.
Besides BARI, socio-economic studies pertaining to homegarden production systems were carried out by Leuchner and Khaleque (1987), Hossain et. al (1988) and Akhtar et. al (1997). Leuchner and Khaleque (1987) concluded that home gardens are the major source of income for rural poor and that there exist ample potential to improve the production system. Hossain et. al (1988) studied the role of gender in home garden plantations and observed that women play vital role in the home gardens production system.
Ina series of studies, MIllat-e-Mustafa et. al (1996; 1997; 1999; 2000) provided an extensive general introduction and over view of the Bangladesh home gardens with respect to their species composition, diversity, richness, similarity, indigenous silviculture, usage and farmers’ ecological knowledge about home garden management in varied physiographic regions (i.e. deltaic, dry land, hilly and plain).
