Sustainability of home gardens in Masemulla forest area in Matara district

Abstract

Home-gardens are meant to be sustainable land use systems that provide a variety of products andservices to the people. This study was undertaken to evaluate the sustainability of home-gardens inMasemulla forest area in Matara district. Ullala, which is a small village closed to Masernulla forestarea, was selected for the study. A survey was conducted using a random sample of 40 home-gardensin the area. Average land area ranged from 0.25 to 0.5 acres with an average family size of 2-8 andalmost all the families belonged to the low income group.

Majority of home gardens (90%) consisted of three canopy layers-near the ground surface herbaceouslayer, followed by an intermediate layer of shrubs and a tree layer at the upper level. Tree densityranged from low to medium with a combination of mixed species arranged in a random way. Canopycoverage was about 15 to 50% and there were more than 50% of unutilized land areas. Speciesdiversity in the selected home-gardens was low ranging from 20-25 species and the no of woody taxa was about 5-10. Dominant tree species included jak (Artocarpus heterophvilus [; coconut (Cocosnuciferai, mango (Mangifer a indica), areca nut (Areca catechu), mahogany (Swieteniamacrophvllai etc. Majority of house holders (90%) considered cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) asan additional income source. All the householders consumed the products of the home-gardens asfood.

Less than 10% of house-holders rare animals and although there is a good potential for bee keeping,less than I% of householders practiced this. Wild-boar and wild-rat attack was one of the mainproblems in crop production. Soil erosion was also a problem in this area and less than 30% ofhouseholders practiced some form of soi I conservation methods. Half of the householders fu Ifi Iledtheir energy requirement from their home-gardens. Although there are many advantages in homegardening.householders don't pay adequate attention as they don't fully understand the various benefitsof proper home-garden ing.