Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
House gardens
House gardens typically consist of plantains, cocoyams, a few cassava stands,
various vegetables, fruit trees, medicinal plants, and other useful wild plants,
usually in multi-storey structure. Medicinal plants, for example,
onyono
-
Veronia amygdalina
,
akokobesa
-
Mentha
spp.,
Jatropha curcas
, castor oil plant,
lemon grass, and cotton plant that are found in them do not normally occur in
other fields.
Proximity was the major reason given by farmers for growing food crops in
house gardens. They are harvested in times of sickness, bereavement, or for emer-
gency sales to satisfy immediate cash needs, especially when going to the farm
may not be permitted or practical.
Agroforests
The common field type under this land-use category consists of a mixture of
plantains, cocoyams, cassava, bananas, pineapples, pawpaw, avocado pear, and
assorted local vegetables, e.g. pepper, tomato, garden eggs, okra. Typically, they
are planted in a random order among naturally occurring trees that are left to
stand. Traditionally,
proka
is the land preparation method employed in the estab-
lishment of this field type.
Proka
land management practice
As noted in Chapters 6 and 11,
proka
is an Akan word which literally means
to rot and affect. It is a management practice that involves clearing native
forests or tree-dominated fallows without burning. The plant biomass is
allowed to decompose
in situ
, thereby adding organic matter and nutrients
to the soil. It is not a land-use form or stage. It is a practice. This traditional
method of land preparation usually begins in August with slashing of shrubs
and small trees, and the selective felling or killing by fire of big trees.
Further clearing continues in the dry season (December/January) to create
the necessary spaces for planting while awaiting the onset of the rains in
February/March.
Planting of crops, notably plantains, cocoyams, cassava, fruits, and vegetables,
is done after the rains have set in. Traditionally, cocoyams grew naturally and pro-
fusely alongside other crops and plants without being consciously planted by
farmers. This mix of crops, together with the trees deliberately left on the field by
the farmer, results in what has been described elsewhere as traditional small peas-
ant farms under the general land-use stage of agroforestry. It is also this mix of
crops that farmers in Tano-Odumasi refer to as
afupa
.
