Abstract
Home Garden is a complex sustainable land use system that combines multiple farming components of the homestead and provides environmental services, household needs, and employment and income generation opportunities to the households. Predicted climate changes have serious implications for crop and livestock yields particularly in tropical regions. Home garden may act as a cushion to the adverse climate shocks. There is dearth of in-depth study of home garden ecosystem in India. Authors selected 100 households in Garhbeta-1 block, which is in the dry zone in the district of Paschim Medinipur in West Bengal for this study. The main objectives of this chapter include: (a) identifying key characteristics of the home garden, (b) identifying the pattern of climate change from the household perceptions and the changes made in the home gardens. (c) identifying different diseases of plants and animals in home gardens in the study area (d) managing diseases of plants in home gardens, (e) identifying different problems/ constraints in home.
TopObjectives Of The Study
There is very limited number of systematic studies in India on home garden ecosystem and the pattern of diseases found in home gardens. The major objective of the study is to understand the key characteristics of the home garden and diseases of plants and animals in the context of climate variability and change. The objectives of the study include:
- 1.
Types of plants and animals found currently in the home gardens
- 2.
Perceptions of the home gardeners about climate variability and change
- 3.
Identification of different diseases of plants in home gardens
- 4.
Identification of different diseases of animals in home gardens
- 5.
Management of diseases of plants and animals in home gardens
Key Terms in this Chapter
PEST: A destructive insect which attacks crops, food, livestock, etc.
Biodiversity: It is short form of biological diversity. It indicates the totality of genes, species and ecosystems in a region or the world.
Woody trees: A plant with thick and tough stems.
Home Garden: “Home Garden” is a complex multifunctional land system that combines multiple farming components of the homestead and provides environmental services, household needs.
Gram Panchayat: Gram panchayat is a local body at village level formed under Panchayat Raj Act.
Ecosystem: A dynamic complex interaction of biotic and abiotic components of environment in a given region.
Climate Change: According to IPCC, Climate change refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer.