Home gardens in western Nepal: opportunities and challenges for on-farm management of agrobiodiversity

Abstract

Home gardens are defined as a system of production of diverse crop plant species, which can be adjacent to household or slightly further away and is easily accessible. Species composition and management systems of Nepalese home gardens are poorly known. The study was conducted to develop an inventory on composition of crop species and varietal diversity to characterise the home gardens of Rupandehi and Gulmi of western Nepal, and to observe the species change over the time for last 10-15 years. Semi-structured Interviews, Direct Observation and Focus Group Discussions were employed to collect primary data. Shannon-Weaver index (SWI) was used to determine the species richness. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed to characterise the home gardens. Mid-hill SWI (H¢=4.41) revealed the higher species diversity (131 species) as compared to terai (123 species). This species richness was significantly higher (p=0.001) in the midhill area. The vegetable species constitute the major component followed by fruits and fodder species that also contributed to the species diversity. The size of home gardens and species richness was positively correlated (r s =0.29, p=0.001). Twenty crop species have been lost during the last 10-15 years and eleven species were threatened in the studied home gardens. Inaccessibility of local seed crops and deforestation were the major causes reported accounting for this trend. Self-saved seed was the major source of planting material in home gardens. There is a need to study the seed supply system for these home gardens. Therefore, a challenge is to make these home gardens selfsupporting through creating a mechanism on strengthening local seed supply systems for long term sustainability of home garden in agrobiodiversity management.

Homegardens in north-eastern Portugal: former features, roles, gendered knowledge and practices

“…It organises the irrigation calendar, decides the best period for spring and autumnal land preparation and in local market, as observed by other authors worldwide (e.g. Hoogerbrugge and Fresco 1993;Lok 2001;VoglLukasser 2003 andAlbuquerque et al 2005;Kumar and Nair 2004;Maroyi 2009;Shillington 2008;Sunwar et al 2006). Moreover, Montesinho homegardens had additional and unique characteristics related to the architecture of the settlements, local culture and gardeners' perceptions and strategies that defined the different types reported.…”

“…Albuquerque et al 2005;Kumar and Nair 2004;Maroyi 2009;Shillington 2008;Sunwar et al 2006). Nevertheless, in Europe, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula, homegardens' research is quite recent and still limited (Reis-Garcia et al 2012).…”

Renovating Open Shallow Dug Wells for Off-Season Home Gardening in Nepal Terai

“…It would also facilitate increased involvement of women farmers in agriculture, required because of increasing out-migration of the male labor force. It is shown that the wells offer enough water storage for irrigating from 0.1 to 0.2 ha of land, which is larger than an average home garden in Rupandehi District [18]. This potential can be further enhanced by implementing more efficient irrigation systems especially through promotion of home gardening, which could result in increased production and consumption, thereby enhancing family nutrition.…”

“…Rainfall (Figure 6), temperature (Figure 7), relative humidity ( Figure 8) and wind speed ( Figure 9) were obtained for Bhairahawa Agricultural Station Index 707 [16][17][18][19]. The CROPWAT program was then used to estimate the reference crop evapotranspiration ( Figure 10) for the study location based on the climatological data collected at Bhairahawa Agricultural Station.…”

Factors associated with agrobiodiversity conservation: A case study on conservation of rice varieties in Barak valley, Assam, India

“…Some of the important researches on in situ conservation of agrobiodiversity and its role on conservation of plant genetic resources are Agelet et al (2000), Sunwar et al (2006), Perrault-Archambault and Coomes (2008), Calvet-Mir et al (2011), etc. Previous researchers have highlighted the importance of seed exchange in the home-gardens as conservation of plant germplasm (Calvet-Mir et al, 2012).…”