Impact of Homestead Agroforestry on Socio-economic Condition of the Respondents at Kamalganj Upazila of Moulvibazar District in Bangladesh
Sajal Singha
Department of Agroforestry and Environmental Science, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet-3100, Bangladesh.
M. Sharaf Uddin
Department of Agroforestry and Environmental Science, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet-3100, Bangladesh.
Sujan Chandra Banik *
Department of Horticulture, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet-3100, Bangladesh.
Bani Krishna Goswami
Department of Soil Science, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet-3100, Bangladesh.
M.A. Kashem
Department of Soil Science, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet-3100, Bangladesh.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This study was conducted at Kamalganj Upazila of Moulvibazar District in Bangladesh during January to September 2015 to explore the impact of homestead agroforestry on the socio economic condition of the respondents and to explore their relationships with the selected characteristics of the respondents. Face to face interview was performed with 135 respondents to collect the data with the help of questionnaire. Eight different characteristics of the farmers namely; educations, farm size, homestead size, annual income, annual expenditure, savings, knowledge on homestead agroforestry, socio-economic class of the respondents showed significant positive relationships with the numbers of diversified plant species, while negative relationship of diversified plant species was observed with age and family size. Agro forestry based practices plays a vital role to uplift the socio-economic classes of the respondents. For uses of agroforestry products, annual savings and expenditures the highest decisions comes from females 45% and 41% followed by male 38% and 39% respectively. In other cases also female participation is greater than male respondents. Results conclude that homestead agroforestry is a unique area for maintaining both plant diversity and productivity for farmers’ livelihood in the studied area.
Keywords: Homestead agroforestry, socio-economic condition, Kamalganj upazila, annual income, gender participation, plant diversity, homestead size.