Homestead Vegetable Research Articles

Effects of disturbances on the spatiotemporal patterns and dynamics of coastal wetland vegetation

The coastal wetlands represented by mangroves are vulnerable to disturbances. To clarify the effects of disturbances quantitatively on mangroves, spatiotemporal changes in land use and land cover (LULC) were compared between the inside and outside of mangroves during 1988 and 2020 in Bangladesh by remote sensing. The mangrove region, which had diverse surface greenness due to natural and anthropogenic disturbances, were surveyed. Changes in greenness were estimated by five vegetation indices (VIs). To increase in the accuracy of land use classification, the five VIs were combined under a random forest (RF) classifier. The five VIs were: normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), green NDVI (GNDVI), soil-adjusted VI (SAVI), green–red VI (GRVI) and enhanced VI (EVI), using data obtained from Landsat TM (30 m resolution) and Sentinel-2A (10 m) via Google Earth Engine. A Moran’s I analysis showed a random pattern of training samples of LULC classes for integrated RF classification. The classification accuracy was evaluated using the reference point data with multiple comparisons of VIs and κ coefficient. The area was classified into eight LULC classes. Although the respective VIs depicted unique characteristics, the accuracies of them were less than 89 %. The integrated classifier improved the accuracy of 96–97 % with κ of 0.96 in 1988 and 0.97 in 2020. The VI-integrated RF was the most effective classifier for LULC, particularly for separating mangroves from homestead vegetation. The changes for 32 years showed that the dense mangrove occupied 42 % of surveyed area in 1988 but declined ca 622 km2 in 2020, whereas sparse mangrove and aquaculture increased by 487 km2 and 464 km2, respectively, out of the total area of 8,360 km2. The changes in LULC classes were mostly from dense mangroves to sparse mangroves, sparse mangroves to dense mangroves and from cropland to bare land and aquaculture. Inaccessible mangrove degradation should result from natural disturbances, i.e., tropical cyclones, while areas near forest boundaries were distorted by anthropogenic disturbances such as aquaculture development. The restoration of habitat quality, mangrove afforestation and sustainable aquaculture practices were effective indicators for improving the mangrove ecosystems. Since natural and anthropogenic disturbances induce substantial loss of mangrove vegetation, the VI-integrated RF classifier should be applied for monitoring LULC and for developing the sustainable management strategies.

The Impact of the 2018 Kerala Floods on Butterfly Diversity and Abundance in the Kollam District of India

Kerala experienced flooding in August 2018 as actual rainfall there exceeded expected rainfall. The current study was carried out in Kerala, India's Kollam district, between September 2018 and August 2019. The survey was carried out at four sites, namely hilly areas, wetlands, plains and homestead vegetation. In the current study, 72 butterfly species from five families were identified. The family Nymphalidae is the dominant butterfly family with 38 species, followed by Lycaenidae with 12 species, Papilionidae with 10 species, Pieridae with eight species and Hespiridae with four species. Of these, six butterfly species were very common, 23 species were common and 21 species were occasional, 19 species were rare and three species were very rare. Various diversity indices such as the Berger-Parker index, Margalef index, Simpson index -λ, Simpson index -D, Simpson index -Dr, Shannon index and Pielou index are calculated. Environmental impoverishment will greatly affect the survival of these beautiful creatures as they are very sensitive to changes in the environment.

Homestead Vegetable Production: A Means Of Livelihood and Nutritional Security for Resource Poor Households in Bangladesh

Justifiable, nutritious and safe food productions are main challenges for food safety which reduce starvation, meets dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy life. Home gardens can play a significant role in providing better food supply and diversity of food. Studies on niche-based homestead gardening were carried out at FSRD site Atia, Tangail under On-Farm Research Division of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute during 2018-19 and 2019-20 to utilize the homestead resources for producing vegetables and fruits and to enhance nutritional security for the farm families. A total of 12 households were selected from marginal (0.021–0.20 ha), small (0.21–1.0 ha) and medium (1.0- 3.0) farmer groups and seven production niches were intervened for year-round production following the Palima model. Results revealed that homestead area could be capable of harvesting sufficient and diversified vegetables round the year by utilizing all possible homestead nieches. After intervention, the number of vegetables was produced by medium farmers (630 kg/year) followed by small (510 kg/year) and marginal (408 kg/year) farmers. Yearly vegetable requirements of farmers were largely met by homestead garden with a supply between 30-58 kg/head/year compared with bench mark level of 5-12 kg/head/year. Results suggested that farmers consumed lion share of their products that could meet up nutrition. Utilization of farm resources available in the farm that increased nutritional security, income and improved livelihoods as well. The up scaling of the production model based on ecosystem in different poverty-stricken regions of Bangladesh is recommended to attain food security and lessening malnutrition.
 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 47(1): 51-68, March 2022

An Innovative Approach to Delineate and Differentiate Clear and Turbid Water Ponds in Indian Sundarban Area Using Sentinel-2 MSI Data

Pond water is the main source of irrigation in the Sundarbans area of West Bengal. The serious issues faced in agricultural lands and ponds are due to salinity. As salinity cannot be detected on high scales through satellite images, in this study the remotely sensed turbidity has been compared and studied with laboratory-measured salinity. The high-resolution Sentinel-2 MSI data with optimum bands for water quality detection have been used in this study. The small agricultural ponds in the study area were not detected by the conventionally used water indices, as the ponds were surrounded by homestead vegetation. Hence, a new index called Pond Probability Spectral Index (PPSI) was formulated and used in the decision tree algorithm to delineate all the ponds. Turbidity indices were used over the extracted ponds to classify them into three classes, clear, turbid and highly turbid. From the field accuracy assessment, one of the turbidity indices outperformed in segregating the ponds with an overall accuracy of 83.3%. It was also found that salinity was inversely proportional to turbidity only when the turbidity value was greater than 100 NTU. The total estimated pond area (average of 3 seasons) in the Sundarban region was 471.66 km2.

Rural Development and Food Security Through Homestead Vegetable Production: A Case Study

Cumilla Sadar Dakshin region is highly diverse in respect to land types, topography, agro-ecology, land-use pattern, cropping systems and crop variability & variety. Agricultural development of the region largely depends on the reliable and comprehensive statistics of the existing cropping cultivation and its related system adopted by the farmers. To investigate the homestead vegetable production and its impact on family nutrition, food security, income generation as well as involvement of female members a survey study was conducted at Cumilla Sadar Dakshin during 2019. A total of 150 selected homesteads were surveyed for this purpose through developed questionnaire and focus group discussion. Both primary and secondary data has been collected from different sources to fulfill the objectives of the study. The results of this study indicated that the farmer’s age, marital status, education level, farm size, source of income, women participation etc. Farmer’s knowledge and farming experiences, perception and attitude differs on different demographic conditions like: age, sex, education, farm size, training which significantly influence the adoption of modern technologies provided by different organizations. The results also showed that women contribution in homestead vegetable production is high in medium farmer’s category 41.67% and low in small farmers 36.36% respectively. The highest number of total vegetables was produced by the medium farmer (63,732 kg/year) followed by small (39,445 kg/year) and marginal farmer (25,514 kg/year). This study provides some recommendation which might impacts on betterment of farmers’ occupational and socio-economic condition by establishing proper policy and legislation both in local and national level administration as well as agricultural extension.

Phenology-based classification of Sentinel-2 data to detect coastal mangroves

Precise categorization of mangrove forests with medium spatial resolution satellite data is challenging and occasionally yields mixed outcomes. The available methods to estimate mangrove vegetation cover using moderately high-resolution images lack differentiation between mangrove and homestead vegetation. Mangrove vegetation displays a range of responses across the phenological cycle at different wavelengths of an optical sensor. Taking advantage of this principle, this study utilized some mangrove and non-mangrove vegetation indices (VIs) as predictor variables sourced from monthly Sentinel-2 data into the random forest algorithm to derive a phenology-based classification outcome. It also ascertained a suitable month for thresholding mangroves across different VIs. Results indicated that phenology-based classification with three classes was more accurate (95% overall accuracy) than threshold-based or WorldCover v100 classifications. MI and MVI layers from December image performed better in discerning mangroves. Findings have important implications in separating mangroves from other coastal vegetations.

Driving Forces of Landuse and Landcover Changes in the North-eastern Part of Dhaka Conurbation

The study identifies decadal landuse and landcover (LULC) changes during 1988-2017 in north-eastern Dhaka conurbation of Bangladesh. Driving forces behind the changes in the study area have also been investigated.In this study, LULC changes were studied using two Landsat sensors. GIS post-processing technique was used for satellite image classification, while an in-depth literature review was conducted to identify the drivers of land cover change. Accuracy for the classified maps ranged from 79percent to 86percent. It was found that agricultural land decreased 47.02 percent while homestead vegetation land cover has increased about 88 percent in the last thirty years (1988-2017).The in-depth analysis result indicates that Dhaka metropolitan area expansion, increased population, internal migration, ongoing housing development projects, and lack of proper landuse and land management implementation are the main drivers of LULC changes in the study area. The development control approach needs to be incorporated into the on-going development projects and activities in the eastern region of greater Dhaka to maintain ecological balance and a green environment of the region. The Dhaka University Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vol. 10(2), 2021, P 53-66

Detection of Land Use Land Cover Changes Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques in a Secondary City in Bangladesh

This study aims at classifying land use land cover (LULC) patterns and detect changes in a 'secondary city' (Savar Upazila) in Bangladesh for 30 years i.e., from 1990 to 2020. Two distinct sets of Landsat satellite imagery, such as Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) 1990 and Landsat 7 ETM+ 2020, were collected from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website. Using ArcMap 10.3, the maximum likelihood algorithm was used to perform a supervised classification methodology. The error matrix and Kappa Kat were done to measure the mapping accuracy. Both images were classified into six separate classes: Cropland, Barren land, Built-up area, Vegetation, Waterbody, and Wetlands. From 1990 to 2020, Cropland, Barren land, Waterbody, and Wetlands have been decreased by 30.63%, 11.26%, 23.54%, and 21.89%, respectively. At the same time, the Built-up area and Vegetation have been increased by 161.16% and 5.77%, respectively. The research revealed that unplanned urbanization had been practiced in the secondary city indicated by the decreases in Cropland, Barren land, Wetland, and Waterbody, which also showed direct threats to food security and freshwater scarcity. An increase in Vegetation (mostly homestead vegetation) indicates some environment awareness programs that encourage people to maintain homestead and artificial gardens. The study argues for the sustainable planning of a secondary city for a developing country's future development.

Financial Security of Farmers through Homestead Vegetable Production in Barishal District, Bangladesh

Homestead farming is always ignored though it is a boundless promising area for economic sustainability. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to determine the present status of the homestead vegetable production and also to ascertain the socio-economic condition of the local farmers of the Barishal District. The influence of different types of socio-economic factors on the economic security of the farmers through homestead vegetable production was also investigated through this study. Following proportionate random sampling technique, a total number of 180 farmers were sampled from three villages of Babuganj Upazila of Barishal of Bangladesh and were interviewed through a predesigned questionnaire. The findings of the study revealed that half of farmers were more than 50 years old, of whom 89% were educated either primary to more than SSC level and had an average family annual income of USD 1967.9. The family size of the respondents indicated that 80% of the farmers had small to medium (4-6 members) family size. The findings also indicated that, on an average, the farmers had 1.25 acre of total land and 0.17 acre of homestead vegetable land in which they spent about 3 hours of time in a day to perform homestead vegetable production. Out of all the farmers, 30% of them didn’t receive any training on any agriculture related issues and 30% of them didn’t receive any training on homestead vegetable gardening related issues. The farmers of the study area practiced some technologies in homestead vegetable production, like, balanced fertilizer use, and pheromone trap. The farmers produced different types of vegetables in their homestead areas and among them green papaya, brinjal and tomato were the dominant. The results of the study also revealed that the farmers earned about USD 50 per year from homestead vegetable gardening which helped them to upsurge some sorts of financial safety and improve nutritional status of their families. In addition, out of nine attributes, two attributes, namely, family size and vegetable land ownership had significant influence on the financial security through homestead vegetable gardening.

Assessment of status and threats of wild mammals in some selected locations of Dinajpur district, Bangladesh

The status of mammals in Dinajpur district was studied from October 2016 to November 2017. For inventory and assessment of wild mammal’s belt-transect sampling, box trap survey, mist netting, night survey and questionnaire survey methods were used. A total of 22 species of mammals belonging to 11 families and 5 orders were recorded. Of the recorded species 8 were rodents, 1 hare, 1 shrew, 7 bats and 5 carnivores. Muridae appeared as the largest family containing 8 species. A total of 9 species (41%) were recorded as “very common”, 6 species (27%) “common”, 4 species (18%) “uncommon”, and 3 species (14%) “rare”. Among all the mammalian species, 41% (9 species) were nocturnal, 14% (3 species) crepuscular, 37% (8 species) metaturnal and 9% (2 species) diurnal. On the other hand, 55% (12 species) of mammals were terrestrial, 9% (2 species) arboreal, 32% (7 species) aerial and 4% (1 species) aquatic mammals. Of all the recorded species, 32% (7 species) were herbivores followed by 27% (6 species) carnivores, 5% (1 species) opportunists while frugivores and insectivores were 18% (4 species) each. About 19% (4 species) of the known species are nationally threatened comprising of Endangered (5%), Vulnerable (5%) and Near Threatened (9%) and Least Concern (81%). Based on the habitats, 14 species (64%) were recorded from forests, 7 (31%) from homestead vegetation’s and 1 (5%) species from wetlands. A good number of individuals (n=12) of the nationally threatened Bengal Fox (Vulpes bengalensis) were found in the study area and two mammal species, Indian Hare (Lepus nigricollis) and Large Indian Civet (Viverra zibetha) have been locally facing the threat of extirpation. The mammalian diversity in the natural forests (64%) was higher than that of the other habitats. Different anthropogenic threats, especially hunting by ethnic Santal people (frequency of observation 24 times, impact point 4), exist in the study area. The major proposed actions for the study area are habitat restoration, increase public awareness and conflict management.
 Jahangirnagar University J. Biol. Sci. 9(1 & 2): 21-34, 2020 (June & December)

APPLICATION OF GOOGLE EARTH IMAGE INFORMATION FOR IDENTIFY PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL FEATURES OF NORTHEASTERN BOUNDARY OF BANGLADESH ALIGNED WITH MEGHALAYA, EASTERN ASSAM AND TRIPURA

A frontier has a significant role of national boundary and security which is discussable matter for any country. Bangladesh and India share international border which is the fifth-longest land border in the world. In the Indian part, Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and West Bengal on the other hand Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Sylhet and Chattagram (Chittagong) are the Divisions of Bangladeshi. The purpose of this research is to identify the physical and cultural features along the border area. Google Earth images are used to identify and quantify different features of the study area with help of Geographical Information System (GIS). GIS techniques are also used to calculate the area of different features. Using Google Earth and GIS technique, research Physical features are tropical rain forest, river, pond, hilly areas, char land, waterfall etc., cultural features are settlement, road, homestead vegetation, agricultural land, fallow land, hat bazar, check post, land port, tourist spots etc. in the north eastern boundary which are located in the border area of India and Bangladesh along the Meghalaya frontier play significant role on local and national economy. For that this research play a vital role for developing physical and cultural environmental baseline information doing sustainable development activities in national development by economic development through tourism income, promoting concerned central place for business and creation of a wide range of jobs.

The Impact of Traditional Homestead Vegetable Cultivation on the Improvement of Livelihood of Rural Women in Bangladesh

The aim of the study was to determine the level of acceptability of traditional homestead vegetable cultivation practices by rural women in the northeastern parts of Bangladesh and its impact on their livelihood. A structured interview schedule was applied to collect data. Data were collected from 100 women from two villages of South Surma Upazila in the Sylhet district and correlation tests were conducted to examine the relationship between the relevant dependent and independent variables. The results showed that 68% of rural women had a moderately favourable opinion of vegetable cultivation regarding changes in the livelihood of rural women, while 20% had low opinion and 12% had high opinion of traditional homestead vegetable practices. The majority (59%) of the women had moderately adopted traditional homestead vegetable cultivation practices compared to 24% who had adopted them little and 17% who had adopted them highly. Computed (r) values indicate that education, homestead area, family income, knowledge of homestead vegetable cultivation, availability of credit, and exposure of the rural women to communication had a significantly positive relationship to their attitudes to changes in livelihood.

Rural Women’s Participation in Boosting Homestead Vegetable Cultivation in Moulvibazar District

Rural Women’s Participation in Boosting Homestead Vegetable Cultivation in Moulvibazar District

Hierarchical classification of land use types using multiple vegetation indices to measure the effects of urbanization.

Detecting fine-scale spatiotemporal land use changes is a prerequisite for understanding and predicting the effects of urbanization and its related human impacts on the ecosystem. Land use changes are frequently examined using vegetation indices (VIs), although the validation of these indices has not been conducted at a high resolution. Therefore, a hierarchical classification was constructed to obtain accurate land use types at a fine scale. The characteristics of four popular VIs were investigated prior to examining the hierarchical classification by using Purbachal New Town, Bangladesh, which exhibits ongoing urbanization. These four VIs are the normalized difference VI (NDVI), green-red VI (GRVI), enhanced VI (EVI), and two-band EVI (EVI2). The reflectance data were obtained by the IKONOS (0.8-m resolution) and WorldView-2 sensor (0.5-m resolution) in 2001 and 2015, respectively. The hierarchical classification of land use types was constructed using a decision tree (DT) utilizing all four of the examined VIs. The accuracy of the classification was evaluated using ground truth data with multiple comparisons and kappa (κ) coefficients. The DT showed overall accuracies of 96.1 and 97.8% in 2001 and 2015, respectively, while the accuracies of the VIs were less than 91.2%. These results indicate that each VI exhibits unique advantages. In addition, the DT was the best classifier of land use types, particularly for native ecosystems represented by Shorea forests and homestead vegetation, at the fine scale. Since the conservation of these native ecosystems is of prime importance, DTs based on hierarchical classifications should be used more widely.

Plant diversity of Sonadia Island – An ecologically critical area of South-East Bangladesh

The study focuses the plant diversity in different habitats, status and percentage distribution of plants in Sonadia Island, Moheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh. A total of 138 species belonging to 121 genera and 52 families were recorded and the species were categorised to tree (56 species), shrub (17), herb (48) and climber (17). Poaceae represents the largest family containing 8 species belonging to 8 genera. Homestead vegetation consists of 78% species followed by roadside (23%) and cultivated land (10%), mangroves (9%), sandy beaches (4%) and wetland (1%). The major traditional use categories were timber, food and fodder, fuel, medicine and fencing where maximum plant species (33% of recorded) were traditionally being used for food and fodder.Keywords: Plant Diversity; Ecologically Critical Area; Sonadia Island; Mangroves.Bangladesh J. Plant Taxon. 24(1): 107–116, 2017 (June)

Improvement of livelihood, food and nutrition security through homestead vegetables production and fruit tree management in Bangladesh

Sustainable, safe and nutritious food productions are the major challenges for global food security which meets dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. The objectives of the study were to utilize homestead resources in scientific method for producing fresh vegetables and fruits over space and time and to meet up the food and nutritional security of the farmers. Household survey was carried out to ascertain livelihoods information of the selected farm households before intervention. The trial was conducted at six replications by the participatory approaches following vegetables production “Golapgonj Model”. Results revealed that a family consisting five members having small homestead area with some fruit trees could be capable of harnessing sufficient and diversified vegetables and fruit round the year by utilizing the all possible homestead nieces and management of fruit trees. Results also suggested that the farmers consumed lion share of their products that could meet up nutrition from various vegetables and fruits, some of them distributed a portion to relatives and neighbors and also sold a portion of them. The additional income generated by selling of surplus vegetables and fruits was generally utilized to purchase supplementary food items, in turn increase the diversification of the family’s diet. Interestingly, active participation of family members (especially women and children) in their homestead vegetable production activities was also ensured. Thus, all these might be lead to full utilization of both physical & other farm resource available in the farm & mobilize resources that increased food & nutritional security, income as well as improved their livelihoods as well.J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 12(2): 377-387, December 2014

Economic dependence of rural people on homestead forestry in Mymensingh, Bangladesh

Homestead forests contribute substantially to the rural economy of Bangladesh. Rural people depend on trees and plants for their energy usage, housing, food and other forms of subsistence livelihood. In order to identify the potential role of forests on homestead dwellers, an empirical field investigation was conducted in the four Upazilas of Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. It was found that land holdings of the respondents within the four sites are the highest in Mymensingh. The study made an important observation that among all homestead vegetation between 5–6 years old, tree species are generally preferred over plants. This is perhaps due to the efforts of the social forestry extension service to demonstrate that planting trees is an important long-term investment. In all four Upazilas, there was a significant correlation between household annual income and homestead forestry, agriculture and fisheries practice, suggesting that higher income families tend to have larger holdings of homesteads, farms and pond areas. Three Upazilas displayed a strong positive relationship (nearly 45%) between homestead forest areas and annual family income; however, the Fulbaria Upazila showed a very poor relationship (0.2%) in this regard. The results of this study suggest that homestead forests play a positive role in the rural economy, in addition to helping mitigate the increasing problem of deforestation in Bangladesh.

Involvement of Rural Women in Homestead Vegetable Cultivation at Rangpur District in Bangladesh

Ho mestead garden is a traditional agro forestry system and an imperative co mponent in the livelihoods of rural poor, and in the rural economy of Bangladesh. Ho me gardening activit ies are cente red on wo men and it can also increase the inco me of wo men, which may result in the better use of household resources and improved caring practices and empowerment. Th is e m- powerment of wo men also addresses a priority area of poverty alleviation and prov ides important socio-economic returns. The focus of the study was the involvement of rural wo men in homestead vegetable cultivation in Gangachara subdistrict of Rangpur district. Data were collected fro m 120 respondents by using random Samp ling method of Ganga chara subdistrict of Rangpur district. Majority (66%) of the respondent had medium involvement with homestead winter vegetable production. The highest proportion (68%) of the respondents had medium involvement in ho mestead summer vegetable production. Correlation analysis indicated that among the respondents selected characteristics, family size was no relat ion with each of their winter, summer and overall ho mestead vegetable cultivation. Farm size had no relationship with winter vegetable cult ivation but h ad positive rela- tionship with summer and overall vegetable production. Age, education, knowledge on homestead vegetable cultivation, annual family inco me, and farm size and commun ication exposure were positively related with each of their winter, su mmer an d overall homestead vegetable cultivation. The coincident impact of home gardening programs in terms of giv ing wo men a voice and promoting their fu ll involvement in domestic life can make an important contribution to the overall imp rovement of Bangladesh .

Contribution of Homestead Vegetable Farming to the Social Wellbeing of Rural Bangladeshis

Contribution of Homestead Vegetable Farming to the Social Wellbeing of Rural Bangladeshis

Food and Economic Security through Homestead Vegetable Production by Women in Flood Affected “<i>Char</i>” Land

The study was conducted in several “Chars” (Char Kachadia, Char Gangaproshad, Char Alokdia and Char Tishondi) in Shibalaya Upazilla under Manikganj District to: investigate the livelihood situation and socio-demographic characteristics of the Char women, identify the current crop production practices adopted by them and to highlight the most likely months for food insecurity along with main problems regarding homestead vegetable production by the respondents. A total of 150 respondents were selected using simple random sampling technique. The study was conducted during August 2009 to February, 2010. It was revealed that most of the respondents were middle aged, had medium to big families, were mostly illiterate to having primary education. They had an average homestead vegetable farm of 6.71 decimals. It was found from the study that most of the respondents spent 3.20 hours/day for cultivating vegetables in their homestead areas. Different types of vegetables were being grown by the respondents including spinach, bitter gourd, cowpea, pumpkin, okra, water spinach, pointed gourd in the summer season and red amaranth, brinjal, tomato, bean, radish, pepper in the winter season. All these vegetables provided food security as well as economic security to the respondents who pointed out that March and September were the most food insecure months. The findings also indicated that the respondents faced several problems like lack of capital, lack of irrigation water during dry season and lack of good quality seeds. Keywords: Food and economic security; homestead; vegetable production; char land DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/agric.v9i1-2.9478 The Agriculturists 2011; 9(1&2): 44-53