Home Gardens

• Home gardens are prevalent in high rainfall regions, particularly in tropical South and Southeast Asia, including states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu. These areas typically have a humid tropical climate, and coconut is a dominant crop.
• Home gardens are characterized by dense and varied arrangements of trees, shrubs, vegetables, and other herbaceous plants, often grown in a random or spatial-temporal layout. In addition, many home gardens incorporate a variety of animals, and fodder grasses and legumes are cultivated to meet the fodder needs of livestock.
• In India, home gardens usually cover 0.20 to 0.50 hectares of land for personal food and livelihood production. Home gardens represent an integrated land-use system where multipurpose trees and shrubs are deliberately managed in close association with annual and perennial agricultural crops and livestock within the compounds of individual households.
• The entire system is typically managed by family labor, and it can be termed as a multitier system or multitier cropping due to the layered planting structure.

Characteristics and Structure of Home Gardens:

• High Species Diversity: Home gardens tend to have a wide variety of species, including a mix of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants.
• Vertical Canopy Strata: Home gardens typically feature 3-4 vertical layers, with different plant species occupying different canopy heights.
  1. Lower Layer: This includes a herbaceous layer near the ground, consisting of vegetables, and a second layer that includes food crops like banana, papaya, and other plants with a height of 1.0–3.0 meters.
  2. Intermediate Layer: This includes fruit trees that typically grow to a height of 5-10 meters.
  3. Upper Tree Layer: This consists of larger, fully grown timber and fruit trees reaching heights of 10-25 meters.

Choice of Species:

• Woody Species:
  • Anacardium occidentale (Cashew)
  • Artocarpus heterophyllus (Jackfruit)
  • Citrus species (Citrus)
  • Psidium guajava (Guava)
  • Mangifera indica (Mango)
  • Azadirachta indica (Neem)
  • Cocos nucifera (Coconut)

• Herbaceous Species:
  • Bhendi (Okra)
  • Onion
  • Cabbage
  • Pumpkin
  • Sweet potato
  • Banana
  • Beans

Advantages of Home Gardens:

• Highly Productive: Home gardens are efficient in terms of food and livelihood production.
• Sustainable: The integrated and diverse nature of home gardens supports biodiversity and resilience, ensuring long-term sustainability.
• Practical: Home gardens are manageable and require low external inputs, often relying on family labor for cultivation.

1. ii) Woody Hedgerows

This system involves planting fast-growing and coppicing trees and shrubs to create hedgerows. These hedgerows serve various purposes, including providing fodder, mulch, and green manure. They are also used for soil conservation and windbreaks. The species commonly used in woody hedgerows include:

• Erythrina species (commonly known as coral trees)
• Leucaena leucocephala (Leucaena or white leadtree)
• Sesbania grandiflora (Sesbania)

These plants are specifically chosen for their ability to regrow quickly (coppice) and for their role in enriching the soil and supporting livestock.

iii) Other Systems

Apiculture with Trees: This system involves planting nectar-producing trees around agricultural fields. These trees attract honeybees, which are essential for honey production. The trees are strategically placed on the boundaries of fields to maximize bee visits and honey production.

Aquaforestry: Aquaforestry integrates trees with fish farming. Trees and shrubs that are preferred by fish are planted around fish ponds. The leaves of these trees serve as natural forage for the fish. This system plays a crucial role in fish production as well as in stabilizing the bunds (dikes) around fish ponds. The trees enhance the ecological balance by providing shade and nutrients, benefiting the fish and overall pond environment.

Mixed Wood Lots: In this system, multipurpose trees (MPTs) are planted either in a mixed arrangement or separately for various purposes such as:

• • Wood Production: Growing trees for timber and firewood.
  • Fodder: Providing feed for livestock.
  • Soil Conservation: Protecting soil from erosion.
  • Soil Reclamation: Improving soil quality and fertility, especially in degraded or saline soils.

This approach is location-specific and helps meet diverse needs for wood, fodder, and ecological functions like soil conservation and reclamation.