Tropical Homegardens - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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R.R. THAMAN T
ET AL.
(Thaman, 1976/77), and almost all grass species are used for fodder if domestic
animals are kept.
1.2. Urban agroforestry gardens apart from homegardens
Cultivation outside homegardens on undeveloped land (i.e., land without residences,
buildings, or for other uses such as playing fields, parks, etc.) is very widespread in
the Pacific island urban areas. These urban and periurban gardens also develop into
agroforestry systems, and are important sources of food (including leaves, fruits, and
nuts) and other products such as timber, fence posts, fuelwood, handicraft and light
construction materials, medicines, and flowers (Table 2). Such areas include road
frontages, empty lots, riverbanks and valleys, rights-of-way for proposed or existing
paths and roads, and open land in general including hillsides and swamplands. Both
subsistence and limited commercial production are attempted in these urban and
periurban agroforestry gardens (Fig. 2).
Figure 2. Periurban mixed planting with fruits, timber, medicinal, and staple crops on ‘Upolu
island’, Samoa. Species include coconut (Cocos nucifera), breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis),
poumuli ( Flueggea flexuosa), bananas and plantains ( Musa a spp.), and noni ( Morinda
citrifolia). Note yam vine ( Dioscorea sp.) trellised onto breadfruit f tree on left (Photo:
C. Elevitch).
In the suburbs of Port Moresby, PNG, sampled in the 1970s, more than one-third
of all households had “gardens” on other lands in addition to their homegardens. The