Homestead Garden has changed a lot in Rural Tripura Affecting Nutritional Requirement of Farm Family.

     Decades ago, a well to do farm family of rural Tripura would have balanced set up of different fruit plants to different vegetable crops and spices trees etc in the homestead land. These fruit plats and other spices crops meet up the nutritional requirement and other to a certain extent but this scenario has rapidly changed in recent times. 

   The usual combination of different fruit plants and others that used to be raised by the farmers in their household were as follows:- 

        1. Banana 

        2. Coconut palm 

        3. Areca nut 

        4. Mango 

        5. Jack fruit 

        6. Litchi 

       7. Black pepper crawled over mango tree or Date palm 

        8. Zinger 

        9. Turmeric 

       10. Coriander 

       11. Perennial chilies 

       12. Farm pond for the followings 

             a. Fishery

             b. Duckery 

             c. Irrigation of winter vegetable 

      13. Animal resources of the following 

             a. Bullock 

             b. Milch cow 

             c. Goats 

             d. Hen 

            e. Piggery 

    But, after decades, the total landscape of farm household and homestead garden has totally changed. Now there’s another set up in rural farm household for better or worse but aggressively encroaching the farmers homestead land too. 

    At present the trends are followings: 

       1. All most all fruit plant is encroached by rubber new, rubber is found in the homestead area of the farm house. 

        2. Banana, Mango and other fruit plants have been numbered. 

        3. Animal resource is limited with one or two pairs of cattle 

        4. Goat, duck and local fowl no longer irritates visitors in the rural environment. 

       5. Of course, now, pig has taken a root in the rural environment. 

      6. Date palm, Drumstick in the periphery of farm pond and near catchments became limited. 

    Changes have really been observed socio-economically in the rural environment however, some changes were seemed to be at the cost of the others. 

                                            Agritangkol Dated 03-07-2012