Author(s):

G Shial and TL Mohanty

Abstract: Now-a-days there has been growing interest to strengthen the local food production practices to meet the need of the present population particularly resource poor farmers. Therefore much importance has been given towards home gardens to enhance household food security and nutrition in a sustainable manner throughout the year. Home gardens are considered as an integral part of local food production systems and meets basic human needs. A home garden is a piece of land with a definite boundary surrounding a homestead, being cultivated with a diverse mixture of perennial and annual plant species, arranged in a multilayered vertical structure, often in combination with raising livestock, and managed mainly by household members for subsistence production. The cost of cultivation increased with increase of holding size from 0.2 acre to1.6 acre where as reverse trend was obtained when it was calculated per acre basis. Next to natural forests, home gardens probably are most intensive and optimal biomass production system. A large numbers of products such as vegetables, fruits, herbaceous food crops, animals etc which supplemented the staple food production practices in open agricultural fields. It plays a major role in home use and income, enhancement of overall farm productivity, soil fertility through addition of litter and organic matter, biodiversity conservation etc. The home gardens of different sizes were found playing various roles. They provide aesthetics, ornamental, improved food quality. The kinds of benefits are more or less similar in all holding sizes, although the quantity of tangible benefits is proportionately more in higher size home gardens.

Pages: 1335-1338  |  1299 Views  275 Downloads

Download (466KB)