Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
those having medicinal value
those performing unique ecological functions
those having economic value, notably oilpalms, kola, and timber species.
Yam management within agroforestry and other land-use systems, most espe-
cially by Krobo farmers, is characterized by the following practices that conserve
soil and agrodiversity, makes for food security, or achieves all:
minimal till, a method that avoids mounds by sowing directly in a hole drilled
in the soil with little disturbance
before sowing, dressing of the yam hole by decomposing leaves, cocoa husk,
and other biomass to enrich soils
live staking that makes use of various plants, particularly Neubouldia laevis ,
called nyabatso by Adangbe-speaking people, and osensrema by Twi-speaking
Akuapem people
staggered harvesting of the diversity of yams
post-harvest in situ storage of the smaller yam tubers right in the soil as seed
stock.
Aspects of these are elaborated upon in Chapter 7.
Like the non-home garden agroforestry, home garden agroforestry makes for food
security and a sound agro-ecosystem by any or all of the following:
an environmentally low-impact tillage using the cutlass, hoe, and fire on a
parsimonious basis, i.e. if it is applied at all
minimizing soil erosion through a canopy of vegetation
making more effective use of the different soil nutrients by the different
demands exerted by the different crops
maintaining ecological stability by the combination of crops with trees
spread of the risk of complete crop failure among the different crops
making for a more balanced diet through the diversity of crops.
Explanation of the development of home garden agroforestry in migrant
Kroboland lies in the huza arrangement whereby family houses are constructed
linearly along a common base. From the base, farming proceeds in the same
general longitudinal direction uninhabited by other dwelling units. This is in con-
trast to the situation in areas characterized by nucleated homes, which crowds out
gardens. In most homes in huza areas crops are sustained, at least partially, by
household refuse. In the valleys where many of the homesteads are located, an
additional source of plant nutrients is soils washed from the uphill (Gyasi, 2002).
Animal husbandry
Very nearly all farmers keep domesticated animals in addition to cultivation of
crops, even though these two activities were hardly integrated to mixed farming,
with the major exception of:
the use of crop residues, most notably those of cassava and plantain, to feed animals
the occasional tethering of sheep and goats in nearby fallow fields to forage
the sweeping of animal droppings to fertilize home gardens, a practice which,
more often than not, is carried out with indifference.
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