Homestead trees - crucial for rural livelihoods in Kashmir

Forests provide crucial ecosystem services that include provisioning services, supporting services, regulating services, and cultural services for the people.

However, forest provisioning ecosystem services (PES) are constantly under threat due to a range of anthropogenic factors, poor land use and land cover practices, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and impacts of climate change.

Trees that grow outside forests (TOFs) such as on wastelands, community lands, agricultural lands, horticultural fields, homesteads, etc. provide the same PES as forests, but remain unaccounted for informs this open access paper titled 'Contribution of provisioning ecosystem services of homestead trees to rural livelihoods in Kashmir Himalaya, India' published in the Journal of Environmental Biology.

What are ecosystem services?

Ecosystem services include direct and indirect contributions that ecosystems make that benefit and help in the survival of humans. They are classified into:

• Provisioning services: Include contributions such as food, water, resources such as wood, oil, genetic resources and medicines. 

• Regulating services: Include benefits derived from natural processes and functioning of ecosystems and include climate regulation, flood regulation and natural hazard regulation, pollination, water purification etc. 

• Supporting services: Include supporting functions necessary for survival such as photosynthesis, supporting water cycles and nutrient cycles, maintenance of viable species gene pools etc.

• Cultural services: include non-material benefits that people can obtain from ecosystems.

What is homestead forestry?

Homestead agroforestry is the integrated production of crops, trees, and livestock by the households in their surroundings areas.

It is sustainable and resilient and provides PES such as fuel wood, fodder, timber, fibre, floss, fruits, vegetables, herbal medicines, industrial feedstock, leaf litter, and other nontimber forest products (NTFPs) for livelihood security and income diversification, besides other regulating services (e.g., carbon sequestration, soil and water conservation, erosion control, biodiversity conservation, climatic moderation, etc.), cultural services (e.g., spiritual and religious values, indigenous traditional knowledge (ITKs), aesthetic values, human health, etc.), and supporting services (e.g., pollination, nutrient recycling, photosynthesis, etc.).

Tree planting at homesteads has also been considered crucial for food and nutritional security, besides for procuring livestock feed, housing materials, agricultural implements and tools, fertilisers, and composts, etc.

Homestead tree planting is an ancient farming practice in Kashmir characterised by vertical and horizontal arrangement of forest trees, fruit trees, shrubs, herbs, lianas, agricultural crops, livestock, and other allied components within the house compounds mostly managed by women. It is used as a potential source of fuel, fodder, timber, housing materials, fruit, vegetables, shelter, medicines, floss, fertiliser, fibre, oilseed, cottage industries, handicrafts, employment, revenue, and other NTFPs.

Though PES of homestead trees are extremely important, policymakers view them as a low-priority source of livelihood and their contribution to socio-economic development in rural Kashmir has been largely overlooked.

Valuing PES of homestead trees

This study aimed at quantifying the supplies of PES from homestead trees, assess their economic value and contribution to rural livelihoods, and determine the socio-economic factors influencing the  income derived from homestead trees in Kashmir Himalayas.

The study was carried out in the district Budgam, Jammu and Kashmir UT dominated by an  undulating terrain alternating with mountains, valleys, and plains. Agriculture, horticulture, livestock rearing, forest resources, wage earning, and petty trade are the major sources of livelihood for local people in the region.

The main land uses in the district include cultivated land, forests, residential and non-farm land, unproductive and barren land, grasslands and pastures, cultivable waste land, fallows, and tree groves. Forest cover accounts for 477 km2 (34.79%) of the total geographical area, predominantly covered by the Himalayan Dry Temperate Forest (13/C).

The study found that:

The average tree holding per homestead was 135.83, ranging from 21.67 to 391.67. About 32 different tree species were found in the homesteads.

The average quantities of PESs extracted from the homestead trees in the surveyed households leaving out timber at 0.315m³

Fruit cultivation helped in taking care of the food and nutritional security of the population in the area. Wickers were a much-valued tree product for handicrafts,  while trees for fodder security. Fuel wood was a primary energy source for most households because of the scarcity of economic substitutes for energy sources.

Extraction of timber from homestead trees is a common practice in rural households and is primarily used for building and repairing homes, farming implements, rural furniture, huts and fences, scaffolding, poles, props, etc. Leaf litter is collected by the women from the homestead trees for making compost nutrient cycling, enhanced crop productivity, charcoal making to counter the harsh winters, and flooring the cattle sheds for livestock protection.

Economic valuation of PES of homestead trees

The mean economic value of PES derived from homestead trees was ₹34720.66/household/year. Fruits contributed highest followed by fuel wood, tree browse, timber and wicker. Harvesting fruits, wicker, tree browse, timber and fuel wood from the homestead trees was a chief source of tree-related income for rural families.

Total revenue earned from all the off-farm and on-farm sources was ₹93.73 lakh/year, averaging ₹ 88425.47/household/year. Agricultural crops contributed the largest share (33.24 percent) of the total income, followed by off-farm sources (33.08 percent), livestock husbandry (17.45 percent) and PES of homestead trees (16.23 percent).

Homestead trees provided rural people with multiple resources for livelihood security including monetary income and a safety net for subsistence in Budgam district in Kashmir. Thus people benefited in terms of food security, livestock production, bio-energy security, agricultural support, housing, cottage industry, health care, socio-culture, income generation, and employment opportunities.

Planning a livelihood diversification strategy through the PES of homestead trees should be considered as an important step for poverty reduction and socio-economic development in the region, argues the paper.