BAREE THE HOME GARDEN OF ASSAM

Abstract

The initiation of modern agriculture can be traced back to the subsistence production system that started in small plots around the household. The system have persistently endured the test of time and continued to play a vibrant role in providing food and income for the family. This production system is still in vogue in the developing as well as few developed countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Broadly, this production system around the dwelling houses is the ‘Home garden’, a land use system involving deliberate management of multipurpose trees and shrubs in intimate association with annual and perennial agricultural crops and invariably livestock within the compounds of individual houses, the whole tree crop-animal unit being intimately managed by family members (Fernandes and Nair, 1986). Similarly, Baree in Assam also means a traditional land-use practice, mostly around the dwelling house and sometimes in isolated distant locations, where numerous plant species including timbers, firewood, vegetables, fruits, plantation crops, spices, herbs, ornamentals along with some other components of farming systems, viz., livestock, poultry, fishery, sericulture, bee-keeping, etc. maintained by the members of the farm family with the primary objective to fulfill various household needs.