Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
supplementation (particularly during dry seasons but also during wet seasons) with
vegetables and fruits purchased at local markets or from neighbors and others in
order to meet daily food requirements. In Namnama, Baliuag and Dy Abra at least
half of all households supplement their daily diet with crops grown on outside
farms (except irrigated rice fields) including fruits and vegetables like mango, cit-
rus, string beans, taro and squash. The crops are planted between the cash crops or
in a small area specifically reserved for this purpose. Farmers in Baliuag and Dy
Abra report that they grow most of their subsistence crops in outside fields because
of goats destroying crops in village homegardens and sufficient space in outside
fields for household food production. In addition they gather food products, both
for home consumption and sale, from nearby forest patches, such as, palm hart
( Oncosperma tigillarium ), young fern leaves ( Athyrium esculentum ), wild pigs and
chicken, small crabs, turtles, fish and shrimp.
In Dy Abra, where various farmers have more than one carabao, manure is not only
used for homegarden application but also transported to outside fields. In the lowland
villages where chemical fertilizers, and also pesticides, are regularly used for seasonal
cash crops on outside farms (Snelder et al. 2008), farmers apply in 30 percent (or more)
of all cases these (excess) chemicals also to non-tree crops in their homegardens.
In Dy Abra, households heavily engaged in logging activities often refer to “a
lack of time to work in the homegarden” as a main reason for growing just a few
trees and planting vegetables only once a year. Moreover, some farmers also refer to
stagnant water during the wet season making the planting of vegetables unfeasible.
Whereas most farmers (or at least half of all in Namnama; Table 2.7) are only
engaged in self-production and exchange of seeds and crops, those who purchase
certified seeds are particularly the farmers in Malibabag and Namnama. Part of the
crops derived from purchased seed is kept aside for seed production during the next
season. This method is repeated three times, or until harvests decline, after which
new seed will be purchased. Yet, there are also many who reproduce seed from
harvested crops over a longer period of time due to lack of cash.
Other homegarden production constraints include (listed in order of importance)
a-stray animals (particularly goats), soil fertility and productivity, pests, lack of
fencing materials and seeds and seedlings in the upland village and in Baliuag, and
pests, diseases, drought, lack of fence materials and flooding in the lowland villages
and in Namnama.
2.5.2
Differences in Reasons for Homegarden Cultivation
Among Land Use Zones
Homegarden functions become clearer by asking farmers to rank, in order of
decreasing importance, various pre-listed reasons for having a homegarden (Table
2.8). Most farmers in both upland and lowland villages primarily maintain a
homegarden to produce fresh food for daily home consumption (average score:
7.1-9.2). The urgency to “have something to eat during times of shortages” is,
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