employment. This study has shown that male were more often mentioned as being
responsible for the management of fruit trees in all categories in Gulmi site because fruit
trees are bigger and difficult to manage by women.
Medicinal Plants production
For day-to-day household use, people grow medicinal plant in home gardens. Therefore,
medicinal plants are also important component of home garden. Different member of the
family were involved in management of medicinal plant. In Gulmi, female were more
engaged in rich (50%) and medium (45%) wealth categories but male (70%) were more
engaged in poor category. Similarly, in Rupandehi female were more engaged in all
categories of indigenous group and rich (51%) and poor (49%) categories of migrant group.
But male were more engaged in medium (48%) category of migrant group. Children were
less involved in medicinal plant production and management activities as compared to
vegetable and fruit production. This may be because the children have least knowledge
about the importance of medicinal plants on one hand; on the other hand medicinal plants do
not give direct and immediate benefit as vegetable and fruit plants. As the male from poor
category were involved in off farm activities outside the village, they collect seedlings of
medicinal plants from different areas and plant them in their home gardens. These medicinal
plants do not need frequent management practices compared to other home garden
species.
Ornamental plants
Ornamental plants are also included into the home garden of theses areas and a separate
gender analysis for ornamental plant was done. The study shows that, female were more
responsible in ornamental plant production in the home garden in all categories of Gulmi,
indigenous group and rich and poor categories of migrant group of Rupandehi sites.
However children were more responsible than male and female in medium and poor
categories in Gulmi, migrant group in Rupandehi and rich and medium categories of
indigenous group in Rupandehi sites. In Gulmi and migrant group of Rupandehi children
were more involved than female and male while, in indigenous group female involvement
were more. This shows that involvement of male in the management of ornamental plant is
less as compared to the female and the children.. This may be because adult do not find
direct benefit from ornamental plants while the children are interested in beautifying their
home gardens with ornamental plants.
Fodder and Forage production
The farmers of Gulmi area reported that in management of fodder and forage plants male
were more involved in rich (53%) and poor (47%) categories and both male and female were
equally involved in medium categories. Similarly, farmer of Rupandehi area reported that
female were more involved in rich (65%) and poor (59%) categories of indigenous group and
medium (52%) and poor (42%) categories of migrant group whereas male were more
involved in medium (49%) categories of indigenous group. Both male and female were
equally involved in rich categories of migrant group. In both the area and irrespective of the
ethnic groups, female were more involved in fodder and forage management activities. This
may be due to the responsibilities of female towards the livestock production and
management. Past studies done by Shrestha et al. (2001) indicated that a variety of trees
are found integrated in a majority of the home garden in Nepal. These trees usually have
multiple uses and provide food, fodder, firewood and timber for household uses. So, fodder
trees have special place in home garden. In the rural households women and children are
widely recognized as the primary collectors of fuel wood and fodder for household
consumption and in the case of very poor women for sale (UNDP, 2002). Women have
heavier responsibilities for childcare and household work, livestock care and for collecting
fuel wood, so they were mainly responsible for fodder and forage production.