How To Develop The Society By Homestead Farm

Homestead farm, which is practised in various parts of the world, is a great illustration of the various agroforestry systems and techniques. The homestead is an active farming unit where various crops, including tree crops, are grown and livestock, poultry, or fish are raised, primarily for the farmer’s subsistence needs. The main features of home gardens, or homesteads, have been listed with particular reference to Kerala in this paper. Because this system of farming is stable, productive, ecologically sound, profitable, and socially acceptable, it meets the criteria for sustainability. 

The main obstacles to this farming system in Kerala, however, are shifting land uses, a shortage of agricultural labour, and declining commodity prices. Watershed-based development with an emphasis on a whole-farm or system approach, reorganizing and improving current home gardens, and developing sustainable models through a farmer-participatory approach for each agroecological zone are some of the future strategies to improve the farming system that should be pursued.

 Other strategies include forming homestead clusters, registering germplasm, developing postharvest technology for home garden products, bridging the yield gap by improving crop productivity, creating opportunities for nonfarm employment, promoting and strengthening rural financial networks, supplying vital rural infrastructure, assembling coalitions to address policy issues at all levels, and expanding consumer perspectives. Over a long period of time, homestead farming and home gardening have become historical traditions in many equatorial countries.

Applications fields of the homestead farm: 

It can generally be used as a system to produce crops that the cultivators need for subsistence. We can use several terms to denote these traditions, like home gardening, mixed garden horticulture, mixed gardening, compound farming, household gardening, etc.

The main target of tolerable agriculture is to preserve natural resources, keep the environment healthier, and enhance the assets of a family over a period of time. It has an immense importance of the system of farming to conserve biodiversity, nutritional security and to maximize production.

What do you mean by Homesteads?

Homesteads can be defined in several ways:

It can be defined as a production sub-system to ensure the production of items for household consumption. Also, it may be a home garden that combines the ecological functions of forests to ensure the socio-economic needs of the people.

Apart from the above-mentioned definitions of the homestead, it may be a system for the production of subsistence crops for the family by the farmer. Or it may be the home and its adjoining land owned and occupied by a family, and the space used for cultivation of trees and vegetables. 

Lastly thinking about the definition of homesteads it is an operational farm unit where a number of crops are grown with livestock, fish, or poultry production mainly for the purpose of satisfying the basic requirement of the farmers.

It will create a challenging prospect for the researcher of the structural complexity, different output, wide genetic variability of home garden, and variety of species. Also, it can offer innovative specialized solutions for the developed functioning of the system.

Home Gardening in different states of India

In Kerala, small farm holdings are located due to high population density. virtually there is no scope for increasing the net planted area.

The available cultivable areas can be fully utilized for urbanization. Land is the major factor of production. It is really limited for families with marginal or small landholdings. The main target of the farmers is not to maximize the production of a single commodity but to tiers of various crops on the same land. The coconut trees are noted to be the most dominant and important tree crop for the small holdings. 

The yearly crops in the homestead are nut, black pepper, cocoa, cashew, and various tree species such as teak, jackfruit, etc. Most of the families also reared cattle and poultry. 

Most of the marginal farmers are becoming popular by utilizing the four-tier structure of intensive land-use practices of homestead farming.

The countless species of multi-purpose trees and shrubs in close collaboration with agricultural crops have been integrated by the farmers of Tamil Nadu.  The integration on farmland for the woody perennials is found to perform even under poor growing conditions. It has been observed that productivity is increased by accompanying suitable scientific inventions

In hilly areas, like Himachal Pradesh, animal husbandry, crop cultivation, and forestry constitute closely integrated components of the farming system. All home gardens consist of a tree on the upper layer, a herbaceous layer near the ground, and the different crops in between the two layers.

To enhance the sustainability and productivity of the unique farming system, and to demonstrate new knowledge, a comparative study is required for homesteads in the Meghalaya, Mizoram, The Konkan coast, and the Andaman Island. In order to increase productivity crops are grown in tiers, and a leaf canopy structure to harvest sunlight to the maximum. This type of homestead gardening ensures the different crop canopy structures capture sufficient light and a crop residue nutrient cycle, under pleasant weather and soil conditions.

Durability of Farming system for Development:

The farmers are always trying to search the farming options to increase productivity and income in a sustainable manner. One such option that can meet the criteria for sustainability is homestead farming, which is economically viable, socially acceptable, ecologically sound, and stable.

Productive aspects of farming:

The concept of homestead farms derives from the reality that home gardens help the isle provide a variety of goods for domestic consumption. The goods for domestic consumption are household supplies, food, firewood, beverages, construction materials etc.

Moreover, in addition to production from the trees themselves, this system has the capability to sustain crop production in the presence of trees. To satisfy the various requirements of the farmer, different types of crop or tree species are required. Most of the crops from trees often provide a considerable proportion of the energy and nutritional needs of the household’s diet. The combination of different crops with various production cycles can produce a continual supply of palatable food. It is a characteristic of food production in home gardens.

Apart from the food plants, there is a wide range of non-food plants that can be found in home gardens with considerable importance.

Those non-food plants are timber, fuel, medicine, ornamental, fibre etc. Those can be added to produce commercial value as well as paints, matchsticks, perfumes etc. Moreover, In times of distress by providing organic manure, milk, and meat, this system supports the farmer financially. 

Security for the environment

The most essential component for ecological security of home gardens incorporates a system for plants, animals and man to live in a symbiotic manner. The main indicator of ecological sustainability is biodiversity. The home gardens affect the function and structure of the natural forest ecosystem with the variety of high species and complex structural arrangement of components with a powerful ecological foundation. Also, the home gardens for a variety of species are well suited to pest and disease management. But Monoculture increases the diseases due to the use of large quantities of agrochemicals.

It is required to maintain the equilibrium between the input and output of natural resources to make the system more sustainable ecologically. In homesteads, the addition of nutrients from different sources balances the loss of nutrients from the system through harvested biomass. 

The nutrient cycling process is more relevant in homesteads due to the effect of trees on such a process. A large portion of the collected nutrients in the tree biomass is returned to the soil through litter fall from some of the multipurpose trees that are planted extensively in homesteads like Jackfruit, mango, guava etc. 

The selected external litter decay supplies the nutrient requirement for the crops and plants in this system. One of the important processes for the enrichment of soil is Foliar leaching. It can help to reduce the cost of using inorganic fertilizers. To improve and maintain the physical-chemical and biological properties of the soil, constant addition of organic substances to the soil through litter fall and recycling of biomass are needed. The multilayer canopy protects the soil from surface compactness, erosion, and run-off to improve soil properties. 

To supply an adequate amount of biomass in and around the farms, organic farming is definitely required. The main items recycled in home gardens are the vegetative portions of tubers, pseudo stems of bananas, crop residues and different types of vegetables.

Importance of homestead farming:

There are some basic characteristics of homestead farming that make it the most important and valuable system.

• It is a more long-lasting system than monoculture agriculture.
• The farmers of this system can avoid economic risks and are less liable to extreme price fluctuations associated with changes in supply and demand by growing a variety of crops.
• The value to farmers’ households is significant after considering the contribution of all products of home gardens.

•  It can ensure that there is always some product of economic value available to the household of farmers. Whether for personal use or for sale by harvesting throughout the year.

• The socio-economic system of home gardening increases the overall productivity of a household and avoids over-reliance on a single commodity.

• This system ensures the use of idle labour. 

• Farmers with limited financial resources are now attempting to return to traditional this system due to the difficulties in coping with the expenses incurred during the growing season.

•  Moreover, the system is more dependent on locally accessible resources rather than costly external inputs or complex technology. 

Functionality of homesteads in view of economic condition

The more dependent economic variables of homesteads are the number of residents, wealth and income, and the amount of land allocated for cultivation and different types of land use and choice of activities. As a result, the home gardens become a unique entity. In this system, most of the plants are utilized for multiple purposes to help families reduce the rate of purchase over the year. To increase the overall productivity of land on a sustained basis, positive use of the soil is adopted. It has been noticed that this farming system is profitable and income generated from home gardens meets the requirement of the farming family consumption.

In West Bengal, the savings realised by homestead farm for direct consumption in reducing the expenditure of the household. It can also help to develop entrepreneurship among women. This system of farming in Tripura has helped farmers realise consistently improved yields and earn.

Acceptance of homestead farming in society

The quality of life for farmers and society by promoting food security at a relatively low cost can be enhanced by the system of farms. It can be achieved by home gardening larger crops with a relatively smaller workforce and by utilizing a small piece of land. This type of cultivation is less prone to total crop failure than the cultivation of regular field crops. That’s why this farming system has been widely accepted as a land use system in many states in India.

Limitations for Homestead Farming

Use of land

The major concern of rapid urbanisation has triggered the escalation of the cost of land and the conversion of agricultural land for urban usage. This in turn convert the prime farmland for purpose other than agriculture. It discourages the farmers from adopting sustainable practices and a long-term perspective on the value of land. On the other hand, the close proximity of newly developed residential areas to farms increases the public demand for ecologically safe farming practices. Education and research in sustainable agriculture can play a key role in building public support for the preservation of agricultural land. It is the utmost priority to educate land use planners and decision-makers about sustainable agriculture.

Availability of Skilled agricultural Labour 

During peak season, the availability of skilled agricultural labour is a challenge. Several labour banks are established but not utilised properly. It is required to take immediate attention through different programs to meet the demand for labour.     

Problems of rising costs and falling prices of Commodities:

The prices of various agricultural commodities frequently fluctuate. Hence the level of productivity from different product combinations is unstable.

Last word:

The sustainable use of natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations is possible through homestead farming. It should be the ultimate goal to integrate the components to improve overall biological efficiency. Moreover, biodiversity is to be preserved and productivity must be sustained. The relationship is to be created among all by the way we place them in the homestead. To protect the integrity of the existing homestead, land reforms and policy initiatives are the main requirements of the farmers.

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