Status, diversity and traditional uses of the homestead gardens under Salari Belt of Arunachal Pradesh

Abstract

Home stead gardens play an important role in fulfilling the basic needs and also conserving and maintaining the plant diversity in a sustainable and socially justifiable manner. Home stead gardens also have distinct horizontal structure which together help in the efficient utilization of water, light and space, and support diverse wildlife species besides meeting various social and basic needs of families. Homestead garden of Salari belt which comprise of three villages was observed in the following study. The Sartang tribe of Salari focus mainly on temperate horticultural crops like Mandarin (Citrus reticulata), Mango (Mangifera indica), Peach (Prunus persica), Pear (Pyrus calleryana), Guava (Psidium guajava) and aromatic plant (Elettaria cardomum). Most of their livelihood is earn by major fruit trees. In addition to that, the people of Salari village also depend on the seasonal vegetables. The inter-space between the fruit trees was not kept vacant round the year. Chilli (Capsicum frutescens), soybean (Glycine max), kidneybean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and colecrops (members of Crucifereae family) was grown round the year that the villagers preferred growing vegetables mostly. In Dekhiyan basti the women of the villagers were engaged in the agricultural practices, whereas the male population were busy in collecting firewood and timber species. Chilli (Capsicum frutescens), bitter brinjal (Solanum incanum) kidneybean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and colecrops (members of Crucifereae family) were practiced mostly. The villagers of the Khoitam basti practice agriculture under undulating elevation, first layer comprise of timber or firewood species. The second layer was preoccupied by green cardamom (Elettaria cardomum) whereas the third layer were occupied mostly by the seasonal vegetables or crops from members of Cucurbitaceae family, respectively. The first layer act as the windbreak and provide shade to cardamom. On an average it was observed that most of the homestead gardens have wider species diversity.