Home Gardens in Nepal

Despite being an integral part of the Nepalese farming systems and playing an important
role in the livelihood of the community, a scientific investigation on the status, roles, and
dynamics of home gardens is lacking (Shrestha et al., 2002). Home gardens, therefore, have
seldom been treated as important contributors to food security and welfare of farming
communities and to the on-farm management of genetic resources by agricultural research
and development policies and programmes.

In order to explore roles, importance, and diversity of home gardens in Nepalese farming
systems, trace historical changes and/or transformation in these gardens and to understand
the effects of ecological and social factors on the structure, composition and dynamics of
home gardens, LI-BIRD is implementing a project “Enhancing the Contribution of Home
Gardens on On-farm Management of Plant Genetic Resources and to improve the
Livelihoods of Nepalese Farmers" in Durbardevisthan of Gulmi, Dudhrakshya of Rupandehi,
Gaurigunj of Jhapa and Panchkanya of Ilam.

To establish benchmark information on agro-ecology, socio-economics and plant diversity of
home gardens for monitoring changes due to project interventions, a baseline survey was
done in all four project sites with the following specific objectives;

• To document species composition of home gardens (species inventory)


• To know about the forms of home gardens and their management activities


• To understand the perception of farmers about home gardens (importance)


• To find out the market status of home garden produces/products


• To provide guidelines for the development of future programme of the project

This paper presents major findings of the baseline studies carried out in those four home
garden sites during 2003-2004.

METHODS

The study sites

The study was carried out in Durbar Devisthan (Gulmi), Dudrakshya (Rupandehi) of Western
region, and Gauriganj (Jhapa) and Panchakanya (Ilam) of Eastern region (table 1) to provide
adequate contrasts in terms of agro-ecosystems and socio-cultural settings.

Table 1. Salient features of the sites selected
Location
Features

Gauriganj-5,

Jhapa

Panchkanya 4,5

and 6, Ilam

Dudrakshya 1,8

Rupandehi

Durbardevisthan

2,3 and 5-Gulmi

Eco-zones Eastern Terai Eastern high hill Western Terai Western mid hill

Altitude 80 m 1640 m 100 m 800-1500 m

Major Ethnic

groups

Mixed: Brahmin,

Tajpuria, Subba,

Chhetri, Miya,

Rajbanshi, Giri,

Mixed: Chhetri,

Brahmin, Tamang,

Rai

Mixed: Tharu,

Newar, Brahmin,

Chhetri,

Mixed: Brahmin,

Chhetri, KDS

Market access Medium Medium High Low
(Source: Gautam et al., 2004)

Sample size and Sampling methods

We identified six major strata and selected 90 households proportionately from those strata
randomly. Households (HH) were identified as a sampling unit for the survey. As major
strata, three categories of economic and resource endowment (rich, medium and poor) and
two categories of ethnic composition (Pahadi-the hill people and Terai community in case of
Terai Region, Brahmin/Chhetri and Newar/Magar/Rai/Limbu/Gurung/Kami/Damai/Sarki in