Commercialization of Home Gardens in Upland Farming Systems: Evidences from Cash Crop Regimes of Rural Meghalaya, Northeast India

Abstract

In developing countries, home garden is essential part of rural ecosystem and cater multiple functions including household food security. However, home gardens are getting commercialized in the developing world including the uplands of northeast India. Hence, we look at the impacts of commercialization on home gardens of different farming systems of Meghalaya. In this exploratory assessment, authors have employed qualitative methods including in-depth interviews to collect primary information from seven different farming systems that include two subsistence, three traditional, and two modern cash crop-based farming systems. The study has investigated the traditional practices of home gardening and its extent in different farming systems, crop and livestock diversities, levels of commercialization and the driving factors. It was found that crop diversification in the home garden is maximum in the jhum (shifting) farming system followed by tea-strawberry farming system. Similarly, the highest number of commercial crops is grown under home gardens in broom farming system and it had also made inroad to jhum (shifting) farming system to some extent. It is also found that chicken and pig rearing is common to all farming systems with some variations. Cattle have been introduced in some villages, as a direct consequence of introduction of wet paddy in the narrow valleys and partly a response to gradual cultural diffusion from the nearby plains. Besides, housing pattern of some settlement or space between dwelling units determine the existence of home garden.