Page 137 - Agroforestry system - book inner (final corrected) - 9.-3-21_Neat

National level e-symposium on “Agroforestry system for augmenting livestock
productivity and empowering resource poor rural farmers”

HOMEGARDENS AS SUSTAINABLE LAND USE PRACTICE: PROSPECTS
AND CHALLENGES

T.K. Kunhamu
Associate Director of Research (Forestry)
Professor & Head, Dept. of Silviculture & Agroforestry, College of Forestry,
Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur- Kerala- 680656
Email: kunhamu.tk@kau.in
Introduction

The agricultural scenario in the country undergoes unprecedented transformations towards addressing the
ecological and economic tradeoffs in productivity. Technology based high input agriculture offer great scope
for productivity maximization but often with serious payment on ecological and environmental externalities.
The challenge of the century remains on meeting these demands in a socially equitable and ecologically
sustainable framework. In this context, the idea of incorporating the structure and functions of coupled
natural ecosystems into the design of managed ecosystems is gaining wide acceptance (Mendez, 2000; Chen
and Liu, 2014). Tropical homegardens probably constitute such a production system that function within a
milieu which is sound in cultural, social, ecological and economic frontiers.

Homegardens are multi-species, multi-tier agroforestry production systems often in small parcels of land
surrounding homesteads that integrate tree-crop-animal components and largely confined to humid tropics.
They are space constrained subsistence farming systems running on traditional low input technologies while
maintaining multiple outputs often meeting the livelihood and nutritional security of millions of people in
the tropics. These homegardens maintain the biological diversity of native and exotic as well as managed or
wild species, and play an important role in improving the quality of life and the economic and social welfare
of people. Physiognomicaly homegardens resemble evergreen forests by virtue of the assemblage of diverse
tree and crops arranged in multi-tiered-intimate-interlocked fashion. Hence, they are often described as most
natural production systems which are ecologically and economically sound and socially acceptable. It evolved
through generations of gradual intensification of cropping in response to increasing human pressure and
the corresponding shortage of arable lands (Nair, 2001, Kumar and Nair, 2004; Wiersum). The multistoried
configuration with multitude of plants and other life forms that are selected based on their functional priorities
and arranged judiciously to utilize the land with best possible combination in time and space. Evolutionary
trends clearly indicate the homegardens as derived from the natural forests along with intensive agricultural
practices.

Apart from the enumerable direct benefits that meets the basic human needs, homegardens deliver quiet
a lot of ecosystem services that are assumed to be the key drivers of their sustainability. The biophysical
advantages like efficient nutrient cycling, maintenance of biological diversity, and multiple products economic
value, socio-cultural and socio-political advantages are the other traits that make homegardens important.
However, these fascinating systems while following sub-optimal management strategies still remain largely
unexplored in terms of their productivity and sustainability and the scientific underpinnings of mystery of its
sustenance over 1000s of generations. Today the studies on homegardens takes larger shifts on account of

118 Institute of Animal Nutrition, Centre for Animal Production Studies, TANUVAS
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development