AGRO·FORESTRY HOME·GARDENS IN KALUTARA DISTRICT A PARTICIPATORY RURAL APPRAISAL (PRA)

Abstract

Promotion of agro-Iorestry in home-gardens has been greatly emphasized as a nationalpriority. in the new amendments of forest-policy in Sri Lanka. Further, development ofhomestead gardens is one of the major component or the Participatory Forestry Project ofthe Forest Department. Evidently, the home gardens contribute a substantial amount offood, timber, fuel-wood, fodder etc., of the country. In most of these home-gardens, thecanopy cover is dense with a closure of over 75 percent.

The total extent of land under the home-gardens in Kalutara District has significantlydecreased during the last decade. However, the remaining home-gardens are a majorsource of food. timber, and fuel-wood required for household consumption. Moreover,exportable products of the perennial agricultural crops, and fruits required to cater theincreasing demand in the tourism are becoming attractive sources of income from the agroforestryhome-gardens in the district. To improve sustainable agro-Iorcstry home-gardens,an assessment of the present agro-forestry home-gardens in the district is essential.

Home centred spatial arrangement in agro-Iorestry reflects different interactions amonghousehold, garden. and gardening as well as socio-economics and indigenous resourcemanagement strategies. Hence, the paper discusses the agro-Iorcstry home-gardens inKal utara district based on the data and information collected through Participatory RuralAppraisal (PRA). The PRA administered the main steps and methods: discussions groupmaps. aggregate maps. wealth runkings, transect walks, participatory transects. venndiagrams. direct matrix, pair-wise ranking and scoring.