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MODELING OF IMPROVEMENT POTENTIAL OF HOMEGARDENS IN MANIKHINNA AREA OF KANDY DISTRICT
By Admin | January 7, 2009
Kandyan homegardens are identified as an economically viable, highly adapted and environmentally sound agroforestry system in Sri Lanka which is having diverse mixture of plants in a close association with each other. Nearly 15% of lands in the country are under this system, which has enormous potential to provide its services to the society. The objective of this study was to identify an agroforestry model to improve the potential of homegarden system. Randomly selected 25 homegardens in Manikhinna GN Division belongs to mid country intermediate zone, were investigated for the study. Household and vegetation surveys were conducted to obtain information about owners interest towards the improvement of homegarden and assessment of plant species and existing tree volume of each homegarden, respectively. Four improvement strategies, namely (i) increasing the number of trees in a given species; (ii) replacement of species; (iii) substitute species; (iv) managing species to achieve optimum productivity were used to develop the agroforestry model.
About 80% of homegardens in Manikhinna area were under 0.1-0.4 ha category indicating the high degree of fragmentation. Species-area curve indicated that covering of 90% of plant species require to assess at least 2 ha of cumulative land area. Vegetation survey revealed that the occurrence of 151 species from 125 genera and 58 families with 5 endemic species. Diversity of homegardens was higher in 0.1- 0.2 ha category compared to < 0.1 ha and 0.2-0.4 ha categories. Cocos nucifera, Mangifera indica, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Swietenia macrophylla, Michelia champaca and Filicium decipiens were selected as model timber species. Agroforestry model was developed by specifying number of trees need to introduce, pattern of tree introducing and arrange of different components in the garden for two different size classes separately. For 0.1-0.2 ha class it gives nearly 100% predicted volume increment compared to the existing volume at 20 years time by applying the model whereas 0.2-0.4 ha size class shows 50% volume increment. Further, productive food/fruit trees will account for better yield throughout the year, thereby safeguarding the food and nutritional security of family members. However, the contribution from animal food products gain from the system is at a low value in this area due to various reasons.
Land fragmentation, labour scarcity and soil management, were identified as major limitations for improve the condition of homegardens. Introduction of new improved fruit varieties with quality planting materials and replacement of less productive trees by high productive varieties were identified as major improvement potentials. Proper mechanism of transmitting information relevant to homegarden management towards farmers is identified as a major service that people need to ensure the improvement of the homegarden system in the studied area.
H.J.C. Jayasooriya 1, D.K.N.G. Pushpakumara 1 and H.M.S. Heenkenda 2
1 Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, email: cjjayasooriya@yahoo.com.
2 HORDI Unit II, Department of Agriculture, Gannoruwa, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
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